Immediate Antiretroviral Therapy Decreases Mortality Among Patients With High CD4 Counts in China: A Nationwide, Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials have demonstrated that immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. We tested the hypothesis that initiating ART ≤30 days after human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis would be associated with reduced mortality among people living with HIV (PLWH) with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL. METHODS: PLWH enrolled in the Chinese National HIV Information System between January 2012 and June 2014 with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL were followed for 12 months. Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine hazard ratios (HRs) for PLWH who initiated ART after HIV diagnosis. ART initiation was treated as a time-dependent variable. RESULTS: We enrolled 34581 PLWH with CD4 >500 cells/μL; 1838 (5.3%) initiated ART ≤30 days after diagnosis (immediate ART group), and 19 deaths were observed with a mortality rate of 1.04 per 100 person-years (PY). Fifty-eight deaths were documented among the 5640 PLWH in the delayed ART group with a mortality rate of 2.25 per 100 PY. There were 713 deaths among the 27103 PLWH in the no ART group with a mortality rate of 2.39 per 100 PY. After controlling for potential confounding factors, ART initiation at ≤30 days (adjusted HR, 0.37 [95% confidence interval, .23–.58]) was a statistically significant protective factor. CONCLUSIONS: We found that immediate ART is associated with a 63% reduction in overall mortality among PLWH with CD4 counts >500 cells/μL in China, supporting the recommendation to initiate ART immediately following HIV diagnosis.