FRIDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- Americans and Canadians
infected with HIV are not getting diagnosed quickly enough after
exposure, resulting in a potentially harmful delay in lifesaving
treatment, a new large study suggests.
The observation stems from an analysis involving nearly 45,000
HIV-positive patients in both countries, which focused on a key
yardstick for immune system strength -- CD4 cell counts -- at the
time each patient first began treatment.
CD4 counts measure the number of "helper" T-cells that are HIV's
preferred target.
Reviewing the participants' medical records between 1997 and
2007, the team found that throughout the 10-year study period, the
average CD4 count at the time of first treatment was below the
recommended level that scientists have long identified as the ideal
starting point for medical care.
"The public health implications of our findings are clear," study author Dr. Richard Moore, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a news release. "Delayed diagnosis reduces survival, and individuals enter into HIV care with lower CD4 counts than the guidelines for [initiating] antiretroviral therapy." A delay in getting treatment not only increases the chance that the disease will progress, but boosts the risk of transmission, he added.
Despite the fact that the average CD4 count at time of first
presentation to care had risen over the course of the decade from
256 to 317, the researchers noted that even the high point was
still below the treatment threshold of 350. Moore and his team also
found that the average age at which patients had first sought care
for HIV had risen over the ten-year period, from 40 to 43.
Writing in an editorial that accompanied the study, Dr. Cynthia
Gay of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill expressed
concern over the findings.
"These findings reveal that despite such compelling data, there is much room for improving our ability to link more HIV-infected individuals with effective treatment prior to immunological deterioration," she said in a news release.
Moore and his colleagues report their findings in the June 1
issue of
Clinical Infectious Diseases.
More information
For more on HIV diagnosis, treatment, and CD4 counts visit the
N.Y. State Department of Health.