Longer duration of anti-retroviral therapy is associated with decreased risk of human papillomaviruses detection in Kenyan women living with HIV

Document Type

Article

Department

Obstetrics and Gynaecology (East Africa)

Abstract

Objective: A longitudinal study was conducted among women living with HIV in Kenya to determine if duration of anti-retroviral (ART) usage altered detection and persistence of oncogenic (high-risk) human papillomaviruses (HR-HPV).

Methods: Women living with HIV without cervical dysplasia were enrolled at a cervical cancer screening clinic. Three cervical swabs, HIV viral loads, and CD4 cell counts were obtained at enrollment and at two annual visits. HPV genotyping was performed on swabs (Roche Linear Array). Linear regression models assessed effects of ART duration on HR-HPV detection and persistence.

Results: Seventy-seven women, median age 38 years, completed three study visits and were included in the analysis. The mean time from HIV diagnosis to enrollment was 9.6 years (SD 3.9 years). The mean ART duration was 6.2 years (SD 3.1 years). Most women had undetectable HIV viral loads and CD4 cell counts above 500 cells/L. Each additional year of ART use reduced the likelihood of detection of HR-HPV by 10–15% and persistent detection of A9 HR-HPV by 20%.

Conclusion: Among Kenyan women living with HIV, longer duration of ART use was associated with significantly reduced risk of all detection and persistent detection of HR-HPV.

Comments

This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.

Publication (Name of Journal)

International Journal of STD & AIDS

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/09564624211030766

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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