This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Current HIV replication independently associated with TB

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Recent data presented at the European AIDS Conference showed a significant correlation between ongoing HIV replication and tuberculosis.

“HIV replication leads to a shift in lymphocyte phenotypes that may impair immune protection against opportunistic infections,” researchers from Switzerland wrote.

The researchers examined the role of ongoing HIV replication as an independent risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) in 25 cohorts enrolled in the COHERE study between 1983 and 2014. The analysis included 263,219 patients (26% female) aged 16 years or older with no prior history of TB. The researchers assessed the duration between enrollment and TB diagnosis or last follow-up in each patient. A Poisson regression model was used to control for age, gender, region of birth, CD4 counts (strata < 100, 100-350, >350) and the abundance of HIV-RNA (< 400, 400-10,000, >10,000).

The patients (median age, 35.9 years) were followed for a median duration of 5.6 years. The average CD4 cell count at baseline was 354/µL (IQR 190-540) and the median abundance of HIV-RNA was 23,000/mL (IQR 1,700-105,000).

Two percent of patients developed TB during 1,771,014 person-years of follow-up, according to the researchers. The overall incidence of TB was 3.3 cases per 1,000 person-years (95% CI; 3.2-3.4). Those with high HIV-RNA were up to four times more likely to develop TB vs. patients with low HIV-RNA, regardless of CD4 count.

Patients who developed TB had lower CD4 counts (242 vs. 357) and higher HIV-RNA (63,000 vs. 22,000), and were more often of non-European origin (43.4% vs. 34.6%). For example, patients from Sub-Saharan Africa were twice (2.4; 95% CI 2.2-2.6) as likely to develop TB compared with those from Europe.

“Our results indicate that ongoing HIV replication is an important risk factor for TB independently from CD4 counts,” the researchers concluded. “HIV-positive persons originating from countries with a high risk of TB infection may benefit from early starting cART even with high CD4 counts.” – by Stephanie Viguers

Reference:

Furrer H, et al. Abstract 790. Presented at: European AIDS Conference; Oct. 21-24, 2015; Barcelona, Spain.

Disclosure: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.