Trends and outcomes of late initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy driven by late presentation among HIV-positive Taiwanese patients in the era of treatment scale-up.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The international and national HIV treatment guidelines in 2016 have focused on scaling up access to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). We aimed to assess the trends and treatment outcomes of late cART initiation in Taiwan.

Methods

Between June 2012 and May 2016, we retrospectively included antiretroviral-naive HIV-positive adults who initiated cART. Late initiation was defined as when cART was initiated in patients with a CD4 count <200 cells/mm3 or having experienced AIDS-defining illnesses. The treatment outcomes were assessed up to 6 months after starting cART.

Results

We included 3655 HIV-positive patients, and the majority of the patients were male (95.4%) with a median age of 31 years and initiated non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibit

SUBMITTER: Lin KY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5493332 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature