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People who have the AIDS virus should start drug treatments sooner than current guidelines recommend, according to a new study.

 

Researchers found that delaying treatment until a patient's immune system is badly damaged nearly doubles the risk of dying in the next few years, compared to patients whose treatment started earlier.

 

Doctors have thought it’s better to spare patients the side effects of AIDS drugs as long as possible.

 

"The data are rather compelling that the risk of death appears to be higher if you wait than if you treat," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped finance the study.

 

If the results prompt doctors to change practice — as Fauci predicts — several hundred thousand Americans who are not taking AIDS drugs now would be advised to start.

 

The study was reported Sunday at an infectious diseases conference in Washington.

 

Powerful drug combinations available since the mid-1990s have transformed HIV infection into a manageable chronic condition, rather than a death sentence.

 

About 56,300 Americans are newly infected with HIV each year.

 

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