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A new study examining data from almost 30,000 HIV patients found 77 percent treatment-adherence among African patients versus 59 percent adherence among North American patients. Initially, doctors worried patients in limited-resource settings would be more likely to skip doses of the demanding treatment regimens. Missing drugs that target different parts of the virus could lead to viral resistance.

The new study refutes this premise, said David Bangsberg, senior study author and an associate professor at the University of California-San Francisco. "Over the last several years, bits of information have trickled out suggesting that adherence to anti-retroviral therapy is really quite excellent in resource-poor countries," he said. "This takes all those pieces of information and puts them together in a systematic way."

Patients' initial adherence is usually high since it noticeably improves their health and adverse effects have yet to develop, said Bangsberg. While that may partly explain the adherence rates on the two continents, the differences observed were so significant, it suggests other factors were also involved, he said.

from New York Newsday