Disparities Disappearing in Success of HIV/AIDS Treatment

Evidence from an inner-city clinic in Baltimore once helped to establish ethnic disparities in the effectiveness of medical management for people infected with HIV. Now there's good news: An updated analysis shows that these differences have effectively disappeared. Why has this happened, and what are the implications if any for AIDS treatment nationwide.

In this podcast, Dr. Richard D. Moore describes the study and what it means for patients in your practice. Dr. Moore is professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Disparities Disappearing in Success of HIV/AIDS Treatment

Questions:

Please tell us about the study and the findings?

It sounds like there was a very big difference between 2005 and 2010? What do you attribute that to?

I was going to ask you about [the influence of the Ryan White Act.] You make a good point in the paper that the best therapy in the world isn't going to make any difference if patients can't access it.

What are the implications of this for other primary care physicians particularly given the ethnic disparities in the disease given different ethnic groups?

Key quotations:

"There was essentially an excellent response across the entire clinic without any significant differences between these various subgroups."

"We have learned well how to manage HIV infection, not only by way of prescribing medications and dealing with issues of adherence, but just managing a number of aspects of the medical care of our patients."

Reference:

Moore RD, Keruly JC, and JG Bartlett. Improvement in the Health of HIV-Infected Persons in Care: Reducing Disparities. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Nov;55(9):1242-51. doi: 10.1093/cid/cis654