Short communication Risks of non-accidental mortality by baseline CD4 + T-cell strata in hepatitis-C-positive and -negative individuals initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy

Background: Patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV experience higher mortality rates than patients infected with HIV alone. We designed a study to determine whether risks for later mortality are similar for HCV-positive and HCV-negative individuals when subjects are stratified on the basis of baseline CD4 + T-cell counts. Methods: Antiretroviral-naive individuals, who initiated highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) between 1996 and 2002 were included in the study. HCV-positive and HCV-negative individuals were stratified separately by baseline CD4 + T-cell counts of 50 cell/µl increments. Coxproportional hazards regression was used to model the effect of these strata with other variables on survival. Results: CD4 + T-cell strata below 200 cells/µl, but not