Pilot Study of Adding Raltegravir (MK-0518) to Antiretroviral Therapy in Patients With Low Level Viremia
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2009-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The medicines used to treat HIV can suppress but cannot kill all the virus in the body. A
small amount of virus remains at low levels in the part of the blood called the plasma. It is
of crucial importance to identify the source of the residual virus in patients receiving
antiretroviral therapy. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the source of low
level plasma virus is from latent (old) infection or ongoing (new) infection. MK-0518 is a
investigational drug, which means that is not yet FDA approved, that works in a different way
to other anti-HIV medicines to help kill the virus. We hypothesize that addition of MK-0518
to a stable anti-HIV regimen will reduce the viral load further in patients with undetectable
plasma virus.