• Pınar Ergen, Begüm Bektas, Özlem Aydın, Havva Keskin, Ayşe Canan Üçışık, Fatma Yılmaz Karadağ, and Yasemin Cağ.
• Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Istanbul Medeniyet University Göztepe Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Afr Health Sci. 2022 Sep 1; 22 (3): 426435426-435.

BackgroundPeople living with HIV need to use antiretroviral therapy throughout their lives.ObjectivesStudies on the efficacy and safety of dual therapy are limited in Turkey. We sought to evaluate the treatment efficacy and side effects among patients who were given a combination of dolutegravir (DTG) and lamivudine (3TC) as a maintenance therapy.MethodsThis retrospective, single-centre study included individuals with viral suppression who were older than 18 years of age, living with HIV, switched from a combination antiretroviral therapy regimen to DTG-3TC dual therapy, and followed up for at least 6 months.ResultsThe study included 63 patients living with HIV. The median age was 42 years (interquartile range (IQR): 36-51 years). The median follow-up under the DTG-3TC regimen was 10.4 months (7.1-16.0 months). In the course of dual therapy, no patients developed any serious adverse effects that would necessitate a therapy switch, but virological blips were seen in two patients. Two patients lost their lives, with one dying from suicide and one dying from respiratory failure associated with the underlying chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.ConclusionThe DTG-3TC dual-therapy regimen is a promising and effective therapy that can be used as a treatment of choice for eligible patients.© 2022 Ergen P et al.

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