The four out of 10 patients who didn't become
undetectable only managed an adherence level of 70 per cent - they were
forgetting a dose at least every other day.
Further analysis revealed, however, that it was missing several doses
in a row that was the biggest predictor of failure. The patients who didn't
succeed had on average at least one three-day gap without pills during
the four months of the study, and nearly half of them took breaks of a
week on at least one occasion. Almost none of the undetectable group took
'drug breaks'.
There was no difference in the first month between the patients whose
treatment failed them and those who succeeded. Everyone managed 95 per
cent adherence in the first month; it was only later in the study that
some people's adherence started to slide.
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Water in many parts of Africa is safe, it's the way it's stored that is dangerous. Safe water is needed so HIV positive mothers can make up bottles for babies and avoid breastfeeding. A survey in Cote d'Ivoire found that women in urban settings collected water from a communal tap once a day and stored it in open vessels. The tap water was pretty safe, with only one in 50 samples containing harmful bacteria.
But three-quarters of all stored water had become
