Background: The use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection induces suppression of viral replication, which has been associated with a significant decrease in disease progression. The use of HAART in open populations may have a different efficacy rate than that reported in controlled clinical trials.
Objective: To describe the frequency of use of HAART and the rate of successful responses, and to identify the factors associated with therapeutic failure.
Methods: A cohort study was conducted in an open Mexican community attending the AIDS clinic of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ). We included 155 HIV-infected patients admitted to the clinic between January 1997 and January 2000, who started HAART and had a minimum follow-up of 6 months and at least one viral load determination after starting treatment. Clinical characteristics, HIV viral load, and CD4+ T lymphocyte counts were analyzed.
Results: Sixty four percent of our study population achieved undetectable viral load after initiation of treatment, and 50% maintained this response during a mean follow-up period of 13.8 months. In the multivariate analysis, factors associated with therapeutic failure were: previous use of antiviral therapy, weight loss greater than 10% during treatment, and receiving HAART outside of a clinical trial.
Conclusions: The use of HAART in this setting had a very low success rate, similar to that reported in other studies. The use of suboptimal therapeutic regimens should be discouraged. Identification of the factors underlying the high success rate seen in controlled clinical trials as compared to the use of HAART in the community may help improve the overall results of this therapy.