December 2008--Bulletin of the World Health Organization: Survival, plasma HIV-1 RNA concentrations and drug resistance in HIV-1-infected Haitian adolescents and young adults on antiretrovirals

Macarthur Charles, Francine Noel, Paul Leger, Patrice Severe, Cynthia Riviere, Carole Anne Beauharnais, Erica Miller, John Rutledge, Heejung Bang, Wesley Shealey, Richard T D'Aquila, Roy M Gulick, Warren D Johnson, Peter F Wright, Jean William Pape & Daniel W Fitzgerald

AIDS is the leading cause of death in adolescents and youth aged 13–25 years in sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries that have generalized epidemics of infection with HIV-1.1–3 Antiretroviral therapy (ART) can dramatically decrease AIDS mortality.4–6 However, about 50% of HIV-1-infected adolescents on ART in the United States of America (USA) have detectable plasma HIV-1 ribonucleic acid (RNA) after 12 months of treatment,7,8 a virologic failure rate significantly higher than the 20% rate reported for adults in both high-income and resource-poor settings.9–12 Such a low rate of success in adolescents in the USA is associated with poor adherence to treatment. There are limited data on outcomes after ART in HIV-1-infected adolescents and youth in developing countries, and no country has published data on HIV-1 drug resistance. The authors report survival, plasma HIV-1 RNA concentrations and HIV-1 drug resistance patterns in 146 adolescents and youth aged 13–25 years who were infected with HIV-1 and fulfilled the clinical criteria for AIDS and were consecutively treated with ART in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, beginning in March 2003.

See full article.