Effect of antiretroviral therapy on survival of HIV/TB-infected patients in Ukraine

Introduction: There is little information from Ukraine about the effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on survival of HIV/TB-infected patients. We evaluated the survival and the effect of HAART on mortality on these patients.Methods: Prospective cohort study of HIV patients who developed TB from January 2005 to December 2006 in a Zaporizhzhya AIDS Center, and were tracked for 60 months after start HAART. Survival was determined by Kaplan-Meier method and effect of HAART on survival was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models.Results: Eighty patients were studied (mean age 34 years, 50% male, median CD4 count 103 cell/?L). In 60 months of HAART 14 patients died. The probability of survival was 82%. In multivariate analysis, patients with a CD4 cell count <100 L had a 5-fold higher risk of mortality (HR 5, 2; 95% CI 1.4-19, 4) and those with extra pulmonary tuberculosis a 2, 2-fold increased risk (HR 2, 2, 95% CI 1, 1-8, 3).Conclusions: HAART significantly increased probability of survival and reduced the risk of death for HIV/TB-infected patients in Ukraine.