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Community viral load and CD4 count distribution among people living with HIV in a South African Township: implications for treatment as prevention.

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION:The goals of scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) have expanded from prevention of morbidity and death to include prevention of transmission. Morbidity and mortality risk are associated with CD4 count; transmission risk depends on plasma viral load (VL). This study aimed to describe CD4 count and VL distributions among HIV-infected individuals in a South African township to gain insights into the potential impact of ART scale-up on community HIV transmission risk. METHODS:A random sample of 10% of the adult population was invited to attend an HIV testing service. Study procedures included a questionnaire, HIV testing, CD4 count, and VL testing. RESULTS:One thousand one hundred forty-four (88.0%) of 1300 randomly selected individuals participated in the study. Two hundred sixty tested positive, giving an HIV prevalence of 22.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 20.3 to 25.3]. A third of all HIV-infected individuals (33.5%, 95% CI: 27.8 to 39.6) reported taking ART. The median CD4 count was 417 cells per microliter (interquartile range, 285-627); 33 (12.7%, 95% CI: 8.9 to 17.4) had a CD4 count of ?200 cells per microliter. VL measurements were available for 219 individuals (84.2%) and were undetectable in 72 (33.9%), >1500 copies per milliliter in 127 (58.0%) and >10,000 copies per milliliter in 96 (43.8%). Of those reporting they were receiving ART, 30.4% had a VL >1500 copies per milliliter compared with 58.0% of those reporting they were not receiving ART. CONCLUSIONS:A small proportion of those living with HIV in this community had a CD4 count of <200 cells per microliter; more than half had a VL high enough to be associated with considerable transmission risk. A substantial proportion of HIV-infected individuals remained at risk of transmitting HIV even after starting ART.

SUBMITTER: Kranzer K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4233323 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Community viral load and CD4 count distribution among people living with HIV in a South African Township: implications for treatment as prevention.

Kranzer Katharina K Lawn Stephen D SD Johnson Leigh F LF Bekker Linda-Gail LG Wood Robin R

Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 20130801 4

<h4>Introduction</h4>The goals of scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) have expanded from prevention of morbidity and death to include prevention of transmission. Morbidity and mortality risk are associated with CD4 count; transmission risk depends on plasma viral load (VL). This study aimed to describe CD4 count and VL distributions among HIV-infected individuals in a South African township to gain insights into the potential impact of ART scale-up on community HIV transmission risk.<h4>Met ...[more]

PMID: 23572010

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Project description:Recently, dolutegravir (DTG)-based combined therapy, a more effective and safer first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART), has been recommended by the World Health Organization for the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) since July 2018. However, its effectiveness in CD4+ T-cells count recovery and viral load suppression has not been studied yet in Ethiopia, where HIV is endemic. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a pilot assessment on the effect of DTG-based therapy on CD4+ T-cell count and viral load count among people living with HIV (PLWH) in Ethiopia. A longitudinal prospective cohort study was conducted from July 2020 to February 2021. 109 PLWH who are ART naive but plan to initiate DTG-based therapy were recruited. HIV viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) copies were determined using polymerase chain reaction. To compute the difference in viral load and CD4+ T-cell counts between the baseline, 3rd, and 6th months, a Friedman test was used. The study included 109 PLWH who had never received antiretroviral medication. Participants taking DTG-based treatment showed significantly decreasing median (IQR) values of viral load count (copies/mL) from 446,812 (237649.5-732994.5) at baseline to 34 (23.5-46) at 3 months and 0.0 (0-19) at 6 months of treatment follow-up. Although the treatment increases the proportion of participants with HIV-1 RNA 50 copies/mL from 0 (0% at baseline) to 87 (79.8%) and 100 (91.7%) at the 3rd and 6th months of treatment, respectively, On the other hand, the CD4+ T-cell count increased significantly during treatment: median (IQR): 209 (81.5-417.5) versus 291 (132-522) versus 378 (181-632.5) cells/L at baseline, the 3rd and 6th months of the treatment follow-up period, respectively. We found dolutegravir-based therapy was a promising option with high virological suppression rates and CD4+ T-cell count recovery, demonstrating a restoration of cellular immunity. Moreover, Viral load suppression rates were high after the initiation of the treatment. We recommend further research should be conducted with a larger number of participants to acquire greater awareness of the treatment outcomes.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Despite the success of prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) program in South Africa, the 30% HIV prevalence among women of childbearing age requires the PMTCT program to be maximally efficient to sustain gains in the prevention of vertical HIV transmission. We aimed to determine the immunologic and virologic status at entry into antenatal care (ANC) and at childbirth among HIV positive women who conceived under the CD4<500 cells/?l antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligibility threshold and universal test and treat (UTT) policies in the Gauteng province of South Africa. METHOD:We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 692 HIV positive adult (>18 years) postpartum women who gave birth between September 2016 and December 2017. Demographic, viral load (VL) and CD4 data at ANC start (3-9 months before delivery) and delivery (3 months before/after) were obtained from medical records of consenting women. We compared CD4?500 cell/?l and viral load (VL) suppression (<400 copes/ml) rates at ANC start and delivery among women with a pre-pregnancy ART, women known HIV positive but with in-pregnancy ART and newly diagnosed women with in-pregnancy ART. Predictors of having a high CD4 and suppressed VL were assessed by log-binomial regression. RESULTS:Of the 692 participants, 394 (57.0%) had CD4 data and 326 (47.1%) had VL data. Overall women with a pre-pregnancy ART were more likely to start ANC with CD4 count?500 cell/?l (46.3% vs 24.8%, adjusted risk ratio (aRR) = 1.9; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.4-2.5), compared to newly diagnosed women. This difference was no longer apparent at the time of delivery (aRR 1.2 95% CI: 0.4-3.7). Similarly, viral suppression at delivery was higher among women with pre-pregnancy ART (87.2% vs 69.3%, aRR 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1-1.6) as compared to the newly diagnosed women. Viral suppression rate among newly diagnosed women increased substantially by the time of delivery from 43.5% to 69.3% (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION:These results show that pre-pregnancy ART improves immunologic and virologic control during pregnancy and call for renewed efforts in HIV testing, linkage to ART and viral monitoring.

Project description:BackgroundStudies from high income countries report that HIV-positive people have an impaired systolic and diastolic cardiac function compared to HIV-negative people. It is unclear if results can be translated directly to the Sub-Saharan Africa context. This study assesses electro- and echocardiographic characteristics in an urban African population, comparing HIV-positive people (treated and not yet treated) with HIV-negative controls.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in Johannesburg, South Africa. We enrolled HIV-positive participants from three randomized controlled trials that had recruited participants from routine HIV testing programs. HIV-negative controls were recruited from the community. Data were collected on demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, medical history and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic characteristics.ResultsIn total, 394 HIV-positive participants and 153 controls were enrolled. The mean age of HIV-positive participants was 40±9 years (controls: 35±10 years), and 34% were male (controls: 50%). Of HIV-positive participants 36% were overweight or obese (controls: 44%), 23% had hypertension (controls: 28%) and 12% were current smoker (controls: 37%). Median time since HIV diagnosis was 6.0 years (IQR 2.3-10.0) and median treatment duration was 4.0 years (IQR 0.0-8.0), 50% had undetectable viral load. The frequency of anatomical cardiac abnormalities was low and did not differ between people with and without HIV. We observed no relation between HIV or anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and systolic or diastolic heart function. There was an association between ART use and corrected QT interval: +11.8 ms compared to HIV-negative controls (p<0.01) and +18.9 ms compared to ART-naïve participants (p = 0.01). We also observed a higher left ventricular mass index in participants on ART (+7.8 g/m2, p<0.01), but this association disappeared after adjusting for CD4 cell count, viral load and HIV-duration.ConclusionThe low number of major cardiac abnormalities in this relatively young, well managed urban African HIV-positive population is reassuring. The increase in corrected QT interval and left ventricular mass may contribute to higher cardiac mortality and morbidity in people living with HIV in the long term.

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Community viral load and CD4 count distribution among people living with HIV in a South African Township: implications for treatment as prevention.

Publications

Community viral load and CD4 count distribution among people living with HIV in a South African Township: implications for treatment as prevention.

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