It was astounding how quickly the triple combination antiretroviral drugs began to be used throughout the developed world and even in certain regions in the developing world. We immediately adopted that approach with our patients at the NIH, and the results took my and my colleagues’ breaths away. Patients who had been close to death walked out of the hospital sometimes within weeks of initiating the combination therapy, having gained back much of the weight that they had lost. When we saw them in follow-up clinic after several more months of therapy, many looked healthy again.
