Impact of antiretroviral therapy containing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate on the survival of patients with HBV and HIV coinfection.

BACKGROUND: Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) is active against both HBV and HIV. Whether the introduction of TDF-containing combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has improved the outcome of HIV/HBV-coinfected patients remains unclear in areas of higher HBV endemicity.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of newly diagnosed antiretroviral-naïve HIV-infected patients between 2007 and 2015. Four groups of patients were defined, according to the HBV status and availability of TDF for HIV treatment in Taiwan in 2011. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: During the 9-year study period, 1,723 HIV-infected patients were included, with a median age of 31 years and baseline CD4 count of 273 cells per μL. The HBV seroprevalence had declined from 18.1% (125/692) in the pre-TDF era to 10.1% (104/1031) in the post-TDF era. The respective mortality rate for HIV/HBV-coinfected and HIV-monoinfected patients in the pre-TDF era was 23.2 (95% CI, 12.5-43.1) and 9.6 (95% CI, 6.1-15.0) deaths per 1000 person-years of follow-up [PYFU], and the respective mortality rate in the post-TDF era was 15.7 (95% CI, 7.0-34.8) and 8.0 (95% CI, 5.5-11.6) deaths per 1000 PYFU. The adjusted hazard ratio for mortality in multivariate Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis among HIV/HBV-coinfected patients compared to HIV-monoinfected patients was 2.79 (95% CI, 1.25-6.22) in pre-TDF era and 1.11 (95% CI, 0.45-2.72) in post-TDF era.

CONCLUSIONS: In this country of high HBV endemicity, the adverse impact of chronic HBV infection on the survival observed in the pre-TDF era has significantly diminished among HIV/HBV-coinfected patients compared to HIV-monoinfected patients in the era of TDF-containing cART.