HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

Food and Drug Administration advised physicians last month to weigh the risks and benefits of Viramune (nevirapine) before prescribing it. Cases of liver damage that produce rash, fever or other symptoms are more common with nevirapine than with other AIDS drugs, FDA said in a statement. Some reactions, including those in some pregnant women, have been fatal.

Females and patients with higher CD4 cell counts are at greater risk of developing liver damage from nevirapine, FDA said.

Nevirapine is one of the drugs used in combination therapy to fight HIV. FDA acknowledged that HIV patients have limited options for fighting the virus, and alternative drugs also have serious side effects.

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No serious liver toxicity or deaths have been reported from single-dose nevirapine given to prevent mother-to-baby HIV transmission, FDA said. Nevirapine is distributed for that purpose in Africa as part of President Bush's AIDS plan and is also used in the United States.

Questions about nevirapine recently surfaced after a National Institutes of Health scientist charged that a Ugandan study of the drug was poorly run. The scientist has been fired but is contest-ing his dismissal. NIH has said the

allegations are false and endanger babies by frightening people away from the drug.

Editor's Note: from Reuters