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\'kitchen sink\' therapy last resort for some hiv patients
Released online at 8: 00 on February 3, 1999m. EST (0100 GMT)
Elizabeth Cohen, Medical Correspondent, Chicago (CNN)--
The cocktail of new, powerful AIDS drugs has proved to be a lifeline for many people living with HIV.
But when the usual combination of two or three drugs is no longer working, doctors are turning to what is known as the \"kitchen sink\" therapy in which up to eight drugs are used at the same time.
\"When you run out of standard medication for someone, you have to do your best to rescue with the rest,\" said Dr.
Anthony Forch of the National Institutes of Health
Even some children with HIV are being treated with kitchen sinks.
James Oleske of the New Jersey Medical School said it was \"the last effort\" when everything else failed \".
Doctors are concerned that many people who take drug cocktails now may develop resistance to their regular drug mix and are forced to continue with kitchen sink therapy.
This is problematic because of the low success rate of this therapy and the fact that highly toxic drugs often make patients sick.
\"I lost 25 pounds due to diarrhea,\" said patient Steven Gendin . \" He ended up having to give up his 7. drug regimen.
\"I have severe anemia and need blood transfusion and various growth stimuli.
\"Gendin is now waiting for the development of new HIV therapies that may work better.
\"We need to find new drugs that are as strong or more powerful than existing drugs, which is very convincing,\" Fauci said . \".
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