Mortality in Patients With Successful Initial Response to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy Is Still Higher Than in Non-HIV-Infected Individuals

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Abstract
Mortality in HIV-infected patients has decreased dramatically since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). We analyzed progression to death in a population of 3678 antiretroviral treatment-naive patients from the ATHENA national observational cohort from 24 weeks after the start of HAART. Mortality was compared with that in the general population in the Netherlands matched by age and gender. Only log-transformed CD4 cell count (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.50, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.40 to 0.61 per unit increase) and plasma viral load (HR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.60, HIV RNA level 6