Opportunistic infections in relation to antiretroviral status among AIDS patients from south India

Background: There is a need to generate data from India on relative frequencies of specific opportunistic infections (OIs) in different regions and their relation to the choice of commonly used generic highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) regimens.
Objectives: To document the prevailing prevalence pattern of OIs both before and after HAART, to look for reduction in OIs following HAART, to assess the risk of developing new OIs within 6 months of HAART initiation and to see if there is any difference in the risk of developing a new OI within 6 months of HAART initiation, for those on Efavirenz (EFV)-based regimens and Nevirapine (NVP)-based regimens.
Materials and Methods: In a prospective observational cohort study conducted in South India involving 108 ART-naive AIDS patients, different pathogens were isolated and identified using standard laboratory techniques. Data analysis was done using SPSS software (version 16.0). Risk of developing an OI after HAART initiation was assessed using the likelihood ratio test from Cox regression models.
Results: Tuberculosis (53.4%), oral Candidiasis (27.2%) and Herpes Zoster (14.7%) were the common infections seen. There was a drastic reduction of 96.59% in OI events after 6 months of HAART. The risk of developing an OI within 6 months of HAART initiation was 5.56%. Time to development of an OI in the first 6 months of HAART was shorter for the NVP-based regimens than with EFV-based regimens, but this difference was not statistically significant (HR=0.891, 95% CI: 0.179-4.429; P=0.888).
Conclusion: Tuberculosis is the most important OI before initiation of HAART. Both EFV and NVP-based regimens are equally efficacious in controlling OIs.

Keywords
Anti retroviral therapy regimens, highly active anti-retroviral therapy, opportunistic infection, tuberculosis