7th Annual Conference Of The British HIV Association [BHIVA] 27 – 29 April 2001, The Hove Centre, Brighton

[AUTHOR(S):] J Gill¹, D Bourboulia², J Wilkinson¹, A Cope², S Mandalia¹, A Marcelin³, V Calvez³, FM Gotch¹, C Boshoff², BG Gazzard^1
1 Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and ² University College London, UK, and ³ Hôpital Pitié-Salpetrière, Paris, France

BHIVA Conf 2001 Apr 27-29;7:O29

BACKGROUND: There have been many reports of AIDS-KS resolving with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HHV8 is thought to be the causative agent of KS. The effects of HAART on plasma HHV8 were prospectively studied in HIV-positive subjects with and without KS.

METHODS: Twenty-one subjects with AIDS-KS and 15 HIV-positive patients without KS were assessed before and during treatment with HAART. Serial samples were taken for HHV8 serology and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR; TaqMan).

RESULTS: All but one of the subjects are homosexual men; 71.4% of KS subjects were seropositive for HHV8 and 76.2% had detectable plasma HHV8 by PCR before starting HAART. In contrast, 53.3% of subjects without KS were HHV8-seropositive and 33.3% were PCR-positive. The subjects were followed for a median of 36 weeks, and 47.6% of subjects with AIDS-KS demonstrated a clinical response to HAART alone. Of the subjects with HHV8 viraemia before treatment, 52.4% achieved an undetectable HHV8 viral load with HAART.

CONCLUSION: HIV/HHV8 co-infected individuals have a fall in HHV8 viral load following HAART.

PRESENTING AUTHOR: J Gill

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Copyright © 2001 - British HIV Association (BHIVA) Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the BHIVA Organising Secretariat 1 Mountview Court, 310 Friern Barnet Lane, London N20 0LD