Dolutegravir-Based Regimens: The Botswana Beat Cohort Study's 'Encouraging' Results

Segment Description: Ava Avalos, MD, director of the Careena Centre for Health in Botswana, discusses the "encouraging" 12-month outcomes from the Botswana Beat Cohort study.

Interview transcript: (modified slightly for readability)

Contagion®: What is your bottom-line message for clinicians regarding dolutegravir-based regimens?

Ava Avalos, MD: "The information that we're sharing is very, very encouraging. People do incredibly well, [there are] very, very few toxicities, very, very little loss to follow-up, and I think less than 2% deaths. Overall in the national program in Botswana we have beautiful outcomes. We have over 95,000 patients on DTG. We have less than 2% adverse events. Medication is tolerated incredibly well and very, very high viral load suppression.So, really, I think Botswana is one of the countries that can serve as an example of what treatment programs can do around the world and how much easier it is for us and how much better it is for patients to give less toxic, better-tolerated medications."

The poster, “12-Month Outcomes on Dolutegravir-Based Regimens in Botswana: The Beat Cohort Study,” was presented on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at CROI 2019 in Seattle, Washington.