Directly Observed Therapy to Treat HIV Infection in Prisoners

To the Editor: The efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been demonstrated in a number of clinical reports.¹ However, current regimens are complex and poor adherence to therapy is the main cause of both treatment failure and emergence of drug resistance.² Adherence to multidose treatment regimens may be more difficult in certain settings, such as prison.³ Herein we report data from HIV-positive prisoners treated using a directly observed therapy (DOT) program.⁴ To our knowledge, DOT for HIV infection has not been evaluated in this setting.