BMJ  2005;330:695 (26 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.38369.669850.8F (published 4 March 2005)

Paper

Treatment exhaustion of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) among individuals infected with HIV in the United Kingdom: multicentre cohort study

¹ Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free and UC Medical School, London NW3 2PF, ² MRC Clinical Trials Unit, London NW1 2DA, ³ Royal Free Centre for HIV Medicine, Royal Free Hospital, London NW3 2QG, ⁴ Centre for Sexual Health and HIV Research, Royal Free and UC Medical School, Mortimer Market Centre, London WC1E 6AU, ⁵ Lawson Unit, Department of HIV Medicine, Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust, Eastern Road, Brighton, BN2 5BE, ⁶ Department of GU Medicine and Communicable Diseases, St Mary's NHS Trust, London W2, ⁷ Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London SE5 9RT, ⁸ Kobler Centre, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London SW10 9NH

Objectives To investigate whether there is evidence that an increasing proportion of HIV infected patients is starting to experience increases in viral load and decreases in CD4 cell count that are consistent with exhaustion of available treatment options.

Design Multicentre cohort study.

Setting Six large HIV treatment centres in southeast England.

Participants All individuals seen for care between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2002.

Main outcome measures Exposure to individual antiretroviral drugs and drug classes, CD4 count, plasma HIV RNA burden.

Results Information is available on 16 593 individuals (13 378 (80.6%) male patients, 10 340 (62.3%) infected via homosexual or bisexual sex, 4426 (26.7%) infected via heterosexual sex, median age 34 years). Overall, 10 207 of the 16 593 patients (61.5%) have been exposed to any antiretroviral therapy. This proportion increased from 41.2% of patients under follow up at the end of 1996 to 71.3% of those under follow up in 2002. The median CD4 count and HIV RNA burden of patients under follow up in each year changed from 270 cells/mm³ and 4.34 log₁₀ copies/ml in 1996 to 408 cells/mm³ and 1.89 log₁₀ copies/ml, respectively, in 2002. By 2002, 3060 (38%) of patients who had ever been treated with antiretroviral therapy had experienced all three main classes. Of these, around one quarter had evidence of "viral load failure" with all these three classes. Patients with three class failure were more likely to have an HIV RNA burden > 2.7 log₁₀ copies/ml and a CD4 count < 200 cells/mm³.

Conclusions The proportion of individuals with HIV infection in the United Kingdom who have been treated has increased gradually over time. A substantial proportion of these patients seem to be in danger of exhausting their options for antiretroviral treatment. New drugs with low toxicity, which are not associated with cross resistance to existing drugs, are urgently needed for such patients.

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