Abstract 986
Poster Session IV, Tuesday, 5/4 (poster 99)
HAART has changed the course of HIV in children resulting in decreases in plasma HIV RNA-Viral Load(VL) and increases in CD4. Little information exists on the reconstitution of the immune system following HAART. We studied 36 children (age 2-13y, median 9) with HIV and documented varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection for their serologic response to VZV. All patients were HIV infected perinatally, were on HAART, and had regular CD4 and VL (ROCHE Amplicor) assessments performed. Antibody titers to VZV were done by a clinically available ELISA technique. Only 6 / 36 patients had baseline VZV titers performed prior to entry in the study and were analyzed separately (Table); 17/30 (57%; group 1) had (+) VZV titers and 13/30 (43%; group 2) had (-) VZV titers. In groups 1 and 2, age of VZV infection (54.5;53.7mos.); the interval from VZV to assay of titer(49.8;50.6mos.); the mean CD4 counts done concurrently with VZV titers (618;718); mean baseline VL (before HAART) (120,712;178,593) and the distribution of HIV classification was similar in both groups respectively. However, children with (+) VZV titers (group 1) had lower mean VL, (24,106) at time of VZV titer testing, in contrast to group 2:119,763. The incidence of VL<400 was 8/17 (47%; group 1) versus only 4/13 (31%; group 2). The mean duration of HAART prior to VZV titer assay in group 1 was 14.3 months and 7.9 months in group 2. Six patients with VZV infection (table) had baseline VZV titers (all negative) performed before entry into study. Repeat VZV titer performed after a mean of 15 months on HAART on these were now positive in 5.
