Adoption is not associated with immunological and virological outcomes in children with perinatally acquired HIV infection in the Netherlands

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 5; p. e0284395
• Main Authors: Van Den Hof, Malon, Smit, Colette, Rossum, Annemarie M C Van, Fraaij, Pieter L A, Wolfs, Tom F W, Geelen, Sibyl P M, Scherpbier, Henriette J, Schölvinck, Elisabeth H, Aerde, Koen Van, Reiss, Peter, Wit, Ferdinand W N M, Pajkrt, Dasja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 04-05-2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adoption; Age; Analysis; Anti-HIV Agents - therapeutic use; Antiretroviral agents; Antiretroviral drugs; Antiretroviral therapy; Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; Biology and Life Sciences; CD4 antigen; Child; Children; Children & youth; Clinical outcomes; Demographics; Diagnosis; Disease transmission; Drug therapy; Health aspects; HIV; HIV (Viruses); HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - epidemiology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Immunology; Infections; Integrase; Lymphocytes T; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Netherlands - epidemiology; Pediatrics; People and Places; Prospective Studies; Registration; Risk factors; Sociodemographics; Variables; Viral Load; Netherlands
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284395

To provide an overview of the demographics, treatment characteristics and long-term outcomes of children with perinatal HIV-1 infection (PHIV) living in the Netherlands (NL) and to specifically investigate whether outcomes differ by children's adoption status.
A prospective population-based open cohort including children with PHIV in NL.
We included children with PHIV who had entered HIV care in NL since 2007, in view of a sharp increase in the number of adopted children with PHIV since that year. We compared the proportion with virologic suppression and CD4+T-cell count over time between the following groups of children with PHIV: adopted and born outside NL, non-adopted born in NL, and non-adopted born outside NL, using generalized estimating equations and linear mixed effects models, respectively. To account for the variation in cohort inclusion, we analyzed data of children exposed to at least one year of antiretroviral therapy (ART).
We included 148 children (827.5 person-years of follow-up, 72% adopted, age at start care in NL 2.4 (0.5-5.3)). Under-18 mortality was zero. Over the years, a boosted PI-based regimen was most often prescribed. The use of integrase inhibitors increased since 2015. Non-adopted children born in NL were less likely to achieve virological suppression compared to adopted children (OR 0.66, 95%CI 0.51-0.86, p = 0.001), which disappeared after excluding one child with suspected treatment nonadherence (OR 0.85, 95%CI 0.57-1.25, p = 0.400). CD4+T-cell Z-score trajectories were not significantly different between groups.
Despite considerable and increasing diversity of the population of children with PHIV in NL, geographical origin and adoption status do not seem to pose important challenges in achieving good immunological and virological outcomes.