Low humoral responses to human cytomegalovirus is associated with immunological treatment failure among HIV infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is one of the opportunistic infections associated with significant morbidity and mortality among HIV/AIDS patients especially before introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Little is known regarding the humoral immune response against HCMV in relation to CD4 counts among HIV infected individuals. A total of 90 achieved sera from HIV infected patients attending Bugando Medical centre care and treatment centre (CTC) aged 18 years and above were retrieved and analyzed. Sociodemographic data were collected using structured data collection tool. Detection of specific HCMV antibodies was done using Indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Data were analyzed by using STATA version 11. A total of 90 HIV infected patients were enrolled in the study whereby 36(40%) had immunological treatment failure. The mean age of the study participants was 39±12.3 years. The Prevalence of specific HCMV IgG antibodies was 84(93.3%, 95% CI: 88-98.5) while the prevalence of specific HCMV IgM antibodies was 2(2.3% 95% CI: 0.8-5.4). The median CD4 counts at 6 months and 12 months on HAART were significantly high in treatment success group. At 12 months of HAART as CD4 counts increases the HCMV IgG index value was also found to increase significantly, p=0.04. Significant proportion of HIV infected individuals was infected with HCMV. Higher median HCMV IgG titers were observed among patients with immunological treatment success. There is a need to investigate humoral immune responses in HIV infected individuals in relation to CD4 counts against various infectious diseases in developing countries where most of these infections are endemic.