Several Datura researchers were part of a team that has just published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The Datura researchers included François-Xavier Blanc (first author) Maryline Bonnet, Conrad Muzoora, Laurence Borand, Delphine Rapoud and Didier Laureillard (last author). Their study was entitled, Systematic or Test-Guided Treatment for Tuberculosis in HIV-Infected Adults (STATIS).
In their paper, the researchers explain that, “In regions with high burdens of tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), many HIV-infected adults begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) when they are already severely immunocompromised. Mortality after ART initiation is high in these patients, and tuberculosis and invasive bacterial diseases are common causes of death.”
The trial compared using systematic TB treatment with testing-guided treatment in severely immunocompromised, adult HIV patients and was conducted simultaneously in 4 different countries, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
In the same NEJM issue, Johns Hopkins Professor, Richard E. Chaisson, wrote an editorial about the STATIS trial. Chaisson writes that the study was well-done, and sets it in context with a “suite of studies” including REMEMBER and TB FAST TRACK, which have also been investigating aspects of this issue (read the Editorial for more information).