Family Practitioner
The
African American community is statistically the most heavily impacted
ethnic group in terms of the numbers and percentages of people infected
by HIV/AIDS nationwide. For over two decades, health professionals like
Dr. Debbie Hagins have been treating drug-resistant patients with
antiretroviral medications and medicinal cocktails. On Friday, Jan. 18,
2008, the FDA approved Intelence, which is the newest medication in its
class for adults who have developed a resistance to many of the
medications that are currently available. “Now, we have another choice
to manage people successfully with HIV/AIDS,” shares an enthusiastic
Dr. Hagins about the most important medical breakthrough in the last 10
years. “My clinic [had] been doing some clinical trials involving
Intelence for a little over a year before it received FDA approval.”
The majority of patients who take Intelence have limited treatment
options and the AIDS virus is detectable in their bloodstream. “Newly
infected patients have the virus that is already resistant to
medication and for those individuals Intelence is a viable addition to
their regimen,” Hagins adds.
Over the years, Dr. Hagins has treated patients who have become drug
resistant for a variety of reasons. She met her first HIV-positive
patient in 1987 while still in medical school and started treating
patients in 1992 once she finished her residency. –yvette caslin
