Antiretroviral therapy for Burmese HIV/AIDS infected patients in Dehong Prefecture: Analysis on its curative effect and impact factors

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of free highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) for Burmese adult HIV/AIDS patients in Dehong Prefecture and investigate its curative effect and impact factors. Methods To evaluate the virological and immunological responses to HAART in patients, Chi-squared tests or F tests were used for statistical analyses and multivariate logistic regression methods for analysis of related factors of the virological response of HAART. Results Among the 523 patients, 27.3% were male and 72.7% female, the mean age being 35.7±8.5. The mean CD₄⁺ T cell count was(338.2±230.4)/mm³ at baseline, and after treatment, the mean CD₄⁺ T cell count was(525.0±283.3)/mm³. For comparison between groups, those males were injected with drugs and the baseline level of CD₄⁺ T lymphocyte became greater than 350 cells/mm³ with slower growth of CD₄⁺ T cell count. An increasing trend was observed in the growth of CD₄⁺ T cell count with the increase of treatment time (P<0.05). After the treatment, 441 cases received viral load test, and 81.0% of their results were below the detection limit. Data from the multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that gender, age, marital status, the baseline level of CD₄⁺ T lymphocyte, treatment time and other factors did not affect the virological response of the HAART. Conclusion Both virological and immunological responses to HAART were well achieved and sustainable for HIV/AIDS patients in Dehong Prefecture. HAART proved to be fairly effective in Dehong Prefecture.