Comparing Treatment Outcomes of Antiretroviral Therapy in HIV-1 and HIV-2 Infected Patients, in Bamako, Mali.

Background: HIV-2 leads to a less-severe disease than HIV-1 but is known to be resistant to Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs). We goaled to evaluate the clinical and biological outcomes of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infected-patients under Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) that do not include NNRTIs.

Methods: This is a case-control study of 100 participants (half in each group) to measure the frequency of clinical and biological adverse effects, and disease outcome at 6 and 12 months of treatment (M6 and M12) We included.

Results: Opportunistic infections were more frequent in HIV-1 infected patients with 82% when compared to HIV-2, 68%. However, the prevalence of treatment adverse events was slightly higher in HIV-2 infected patients. The average increase of CD4 cell count at M6 of treatment was 139.93 and 159.41 cells/mm3, for HIV-2 and HIV-1 groups respectively, and at 153 and 217 cells/mm3, at M12 for HIV-2 and HIV-1 respectively. A total of nine HIV-2 and six HIV-1 deaths were reported during the study.

Conclusion: This study has shown that ART regimens that do not include NNRTIs are effective equally in the treatment of HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections. Nevertheless, we recommend regular and continuous laboratory monitoring for all HIV treated patients.