Background: There are few studies on pediatric HIV-HBV coinfection, so evidences about relationships between the two viruses are scarce.
Objectives: influence of HBV infection on virological and immunological response to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in antiretroviral-naïve horizontally HIV-HBV coinfected subjects during early childhood.
Material and methods: observational study on 826 HIV+ subjects in evidence of Craiova Regional Centre (CRC); we analyzed the immunological and virological response at 6-12 months after starting first antiretroviral regimens compared in 2 groups: horizontally HIV-HBV coinfected subjects during early childhood (CoS) versus horizontally HIV infected subjects during early childhood without HBV infection (non-CoS).
Results: Number of subjects: CoS-66 subjects, non-CoS-132 subjects. Demographic data: CoS-gender ratio F:M=0.886, the majority lived in rural area (57.58%), mean age on diagnosis-9.288±4.607 years, non-CoS-gender ratio F:M=0.859, the majority lived in urban area (53.79%), mean age on diagnosis-10.742±5.107 years. At baseline, HIV category was: CoS-A-1.52%, B-80.30%, C-18.18%, non-CoS-A-2.27%, B-70.45%, C-27.27% (p Chi(2)=0.332), the mean CD4+ cell count was: CoS-148.33±148.10 cells/ml, non-CoS-163.17±155.39 cells/ml (p Student=0.521) and the mean HIV viral load (HIV VL) was: CoS-5.06±0.80 lgcopies/ml (for 29 subjects), non-CoS-5.04±0.84 lgcopies/ml (for 61 subjects) (p Student=0.978). At the end of the studied period, the mean increase in CD4+ cell count was: CoS-177.068±141.676 cells/ml, non-CoS-176.015±191.751 cells/ml (p Student=0.969) and the mean decrease in HIV VL was: CoS-5.04±0.79 lgcopies/ml, non-COS-4.69±2.04 lgcopies/ml (p Student=0.911).
Conclusions: The presence of HBV coinfection does not influence immunological or virological response to ART.
Keywords: ART; CoS; immunological response; non-CoS; virological response.