Improved survival of persons with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy in Taiwan

We assessed the survival of 1,044 HIV-infected persons enrolled in three periods: period 1, 1994 to 1997 (before the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy [HAART]); period 2, 1997 to 2000 (early-HAART); and period 3, 2000 to 2004 (late-HAART). As of 30 June 2005, 259 (24.8%) persons had died after a median observation duration of 985 days (range, 2 - 4,025 days). The mortality rate declined from 33.75 per 100 person-years in the pre-HAART era to 6.51 per 100 person-years in the late-HAART era (P < 0.0001). The adjusted hazard ratios for death in persons with a baseline CD4 count of <200 cells/mul in periods 2 and 3 were 0.605 (P = 0.007) and 0.371 (P < 0.0001), respectively, when compared with persons enrolled in period 1; the adjusted hazard ratio for death was 0.611 for persons enrolled in period 3 when compared to period 2 (P = 0.01). Our study suggested that the survival of persons in the late stage of HIV infection in Taiwan continued to improve in the late HAART era.