Incidence of Oral Lesions in HIV-1-infected Women: Reduction with HAART

Few studies assess the effectiveness of HAART on reducing the incidence and recurrence of oral lesions. We investigated such changes among 503 HIV+ women over six years in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study. The incidence of erythematous candidiasis (EC), pseudomembranous candidiasis (PC), hairy leukoplakia (HL), and warts was computed over follow-up visits after HAART initiation compared with before HAART initiation. Analysis of our data demonstrates a strong decrease in candidiasis after HAART initiation. The incidence of EC fell to 2.99% from 5.48% (RR 0.545); PC fell to 2.85% from 6.70% (RR 0.425); and EC or PC fell to 3.43% from 7.35% (RR 0.466). No changes were seen in HL or warts. Higher HIV-RNA was associated with greater incidence of candidiasis and HL, but not warts. Analysis of these data indicates that recurrence and incidence of candidiasis are reduced by HAART, and that recurrence is reduced independently of CD4 and HIV-RNA.