Effects of cotrimoxazole prophylactic treatment on adverse health outcomes among HIV-exposed, uninfected infants

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization guidelines recommend cotrimoxazole prophylactic treatment (CPT) for all HIV-exposed infants from age 6 weeks to the cessation of breastfeeding and the exclusion of HIV infection. There are limited data on the effects of CPT among this population of infants. We examined the effects of CPT on adverse health outcomes among HIV-exposed infants during the first 36 weeks of life using data from the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals and Nutrition study, a large clinical trial of antiretroviral drugs given to the mother or infant for the prevention of HIV transmission during breastfeeding. Methods: For the analysis, we assigned a status of CPT-exposed to infants who were participating in the study after the CPT program started. We estimated unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios for the effect of CPT status on time to incident malaria, severe illness or death, anemia, and weight-for-age Z score