WHO approves combination pills for HIV/AIDS

The World Health Organization will soon formally approve three new combinations of three antiretroviral drugs in fixed doses for use in patients with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. The approval could have a major impact on antiretroviral treatment for patients all over the world.

The fixed dose combinations, whose endorsement WHO hopes to announce on 1 December, world AIDS day, is part of a drive by the organisation to get antiretroviral drugs to three million people with HIV or AIDS in the world's poorest countries by 2005.

Fixed dose drugs have proved successful in treating malaria and tuberculosis. Whether in the form of a single pill or …