Virologic, Immunologic, and Clinical Response to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: the Gender Issue Revisited

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Abstract
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically improved the prognosis for patients with HIV. There is ongoing debate over a potential gender effect on patient outcome after HAART. Individuals were from the EuroSIDA cohort, naive to protease inhibitors and nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and had at least one viral load and CD4 measurement prior to starting HAART. Endpoints were virologic (time to 500 copies/mL]), immunologic (time to a 100/mm cell rise in CD4 count) and clinical (time to new AIDS and death). Hazard ratios (HR), derived using Cox regression models, compared female to male rates of achieving endpoints. Of 2547 patients, 20% (511) were female. Significantly more females than males were nonwhite (24% vs. 10%, p p We found no significant evidence of a gender difference in virologic, immunologic, or clinical outcomes after starting HAART.
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