Svilen Konov, HIV i-Base

This study looked into the effect of HAART in a group of HIV infected patients infected through injecting drug use (IDUs) compared to patients infected via other routes. In the Danish HIV cohort study, patients who initiated HAART from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2007 were identified. CD4+ cell counts and viral load were followed. For CD4+ cell counts, medians for the two groups were compared and for viral load the percentage of full viral suppression defined as <500 copies/mL.

The study included 3615 patients, representing 22,804 person years of observation. A total of 346 people (9.6%) were categorised as IDUs.

IDUs were diagnosed with a higher median CD4 cell count (IQR) [300 (170-480) vs 248 (109-418), p< 0.0001] but initiated HAART on average 125 (19-560) days after they were first eligible to treatment according to national guidelines, compared to non-IDUs who started after a median of 31 (5-158) days.

IDUs were more likely to receive a first regiment based on PIs compared to NNRTI based regiments for non-IDUs, and IDUs received more Trizivir. Importantly, more than half of IDUs had fully suppressed viraemia within the first 3 months of HAART.

Ref: Larsen M V et al. Efficacy of highly active antiretroviral treatment in HIV-1 positive injecting drug users – results from the Danish HIV cohort study. PE20.3/1