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A significant proportion of HIV‐infected patients admitted to hospital have immunosuppression as a result of failure of highly active antiretroviral therapy
Author(s) -
Manavi K,
McMillan A
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
hiv medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.53
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1468-1293
pISSN - 1464-2662
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-1293.2004.00235.x
Subject(s) - medicine , coinfection , immunosuppression , viral load , retrospective cohort study , antiretroviral therapy , hepatitis c virus , hepatitis , hepatitis c , gastroenterology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , surgery , immunology , virus
Objectives To investigate the immunological and virological features of patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) admitted to a tertiary centre. Methods A retrospective study was carried out on HIV‐infected patients on HAART admitted to the Regional Infectious Disease Unit in Edinburgh between June 2002 and July 2003. Results A total of 125 patients who had been on HAART for at least 6 months were admitted during the study period. The frequencies of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection were 52% (78 of 150 patients) and 48% (72 of 150 patients), respectively ( P >0.05 for comparison of frequencies of hepatitis B and C). Of patients who had been on HAART for atleast 6 months, 50% (63 of 125 patients) were immuno‐suppressed and had significantly higher bed‐days 6 (3–12) compared with those with CD4>200 cells/μL ( P <0.002). Amongst immuno‐suppressed patients, 38% (24 of 63) had undetectable viral load after at least 6 months of therapy. Those patients were mostly (67%) intravenous drug users and had a significantly higher median age (43 years; range 38–47 years) than other patients ( P <0.001). Conclusions Earlier start of HAART and addition of interleukin (IL)‐2 to the treatment regimens of patients at risk of slow CD4 T‐cell count recovery may reduce the duration of their subsequent hospital admissions.