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We are well acquainted with the worst outcomes of HIV infection but have surprisingly little descriptive information on the best outcomes among patients who respond optimally to treatment. European researchers evaluated long-term CD4-cell response among patients with consistently suppressed viral loads on initial treatment regimens.
Among 1835 such patients (most were white and male) enrolled in a large, multinational, prospective cohort study, median CD4 count at start of treatment was 204 cells/mm3. After more than 5 years of follow-up, mean CD4 count was 497 cells/mm3 among those who started treatment with ≤200, 676 for those who started with 201–350, and 794 for those who started with >350. As CD4-cell counts rose, the yearly rate of ris…