AIDS-Defining Events and Deaths in HIV-infected Children and Adolescents on Antiretrovirals: A 14-Year Study in Thailand

摘要

Background: Data are scarce on the long-term clinical outcomes of perinatally HIV-infected children and adolescents receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low/middle-income countries. We assessed the incidence of mortality before (early) and after (late) 6 months of ART and of the composite outcome of new/recurrent AIDS-defining event or death >6 months after ART start (late AIDS/death) and their associated factors.Methods: Study population was perinatally HIV-infected children ( 6 months after ART initiation, median age at ART initiation was 6.4 years, CD4% 8.2%, and HIV-RNA load 5.1 log10 copies/mL. Thirty-eight (7%) children developed late AIDS/death after median time of 3.3 years: 24 died and 24 experienced new/recurrent AIDS-defining events (10 subsequently died). Factors independently associated with late AIDS/death were current age al3 years (adjusted subdistribu-tion hazard ratio 4.9; 95% CI: 2.4 to 10.1), HIV-RNA load always >400 copies/mL (12.3; 95% CI: 4.0 to 37.6), BMI-z-score always <-2 SD (13.7; 95% CI: 3.4 to 55.7), and hemoglobin <8 g/dL at least once (4.6; 95% CI: 2.0 to 10.5).Conclusions: After the initial 6 months of ART, being an adolescent, persistent viremia, poor nutritional status, and severe anemia were associated with poor clinical outcomes. This supports the need for novel interventions that target children, particularly adolescents with poor growth and uncontrolled viremia.