PredART trial publication
The results of the PredART trial have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers from UCT and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Belgium) have shown that a four-week course of moderate dose prednisone reduced the risk of tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) by 30% in HIV-positive patients. This is the first trial to show that TB-IRIS can be prevented in these patients and represents an important contribution to the body of knowledge on management of HIV-TB co-infection.
TB-IRIS is a serious risk in people living with HIV, resulting in hospitalisation of a quarter of people who experience it. The syndrome occurs in 18% of patients with HIV-associated TB initiating antiretroviral therapy.