Injecting drug use increases the risk of death in HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic remains a major public health issue worldwide. In Vietnam, the HIV epidemic is essentially driven by people who inject drugs (PWID). This study aims to compare mortality and loss to follow-up (LTFU) between PWID and other patients. From June 2017 to April 2018, HIV-infected adults were enrolled in a prospective cohort from time of ART initiation in six provinces of North Vietnam. The end date was July 2020. Mortality and LTFU were described using competing-risk survival models. Factors associated with mortality and with LTFU were identified using Cox models with a competing-risk approach. Of the 578 participants, 261 (45.2%) were PWID and almost exclusively male. 49 patients died, corresponding to a mortality rate (95% confidence interval (CI)) of 3.7 (2.8–4.9) per 100 person-months, and 79 were lost to follow-up, corresponding to a rate (95% CI) of 6.0 (4.8–7.4) per 100 person-months. PWID were at higher risk of death but not of LTFU. Overall, LTFU was high in both groups. Latecomers to clinical visits were more at risk of both death and LTFU. Therefore, this should be a warning to clinical teams and preventive actions taken in these patients.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03249493..

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• intravenous substance abuse
• mortality
• antiretroviral therapy
• lost to follow-up
• Asia

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the staff at participating clinical sites for their cooperation and support in conducting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.