What Happens When ART Is Stopped?

Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) is usually intended to be administered without interruption, a number of clinical situations can lead to discontinuations, including the development of ART-related adverse effects, loss of the ability to pay for medications, insufficient retention in care, and patient choice to stop treatment. The pace at which the virus rebounds to pretreatment levels following ART discontinuation may have implications for both HIV transmission risk and clinical progression.

To get a better sense of this pace, researchers evaluated data from two studies that involved protocol-defined treatment interruptions. One study (SPARTAC) included information on 171 patients who initiated ART during primary HIV infection (PHI), wh…