{"doi":"10.1177/13596535231168480","title":"Abacavir safety and effectiveness in young infants with HIV in South African observational cohorts","abstract":"Background WHO guidelines recommend abacavir in first-line antiretroviral treatment for children and neonates. However, there is no approved dose <3 months of age, and data in neonates are limited. Methods We included infants who initiated ART aged <3 months, between 2006 and 2019, in nine South African cohorts. In those who received abacavir or zidovudine, we described antiretroviral discontinuation rates; and 6- and 12-month viral suppression (<400 copies/mL). We compared infants aged <28 and ≥28 days, those weighing <3 and ≥3 kg. Results Overall 837/1643 infants (51%) received abacavir and 443 (27%) received zidovudine. Median (interquartile range, IQR) age was 52 days (23–71), CD4 percentage was 27.9 (19.2–38.0), and weight was 4.0 kg (3.0–4.7) at ART initiation. In those with ≥1 month’s follow-up, 100/718 (14%) infants discontinued abacavir, at a median of 17.5 months (IQR 6.5–39.5). Abacavir discontinuations did not differ by age or weight category ( p = 0.4 and 0.2, respectively); and were less frequent than zidovudine discontinuations (adjusted hazard ratio 0.14, 95% confidence interval 0.10–0.20). Viral suppression at 12 months occurred in 43/79 (54%) and 130/250 (52%) of those who started abacavir aged <28 and ≥28 days, respectively ( p = 0.8); 11/19 (58%) and 31/60 (52%) in those who weighed <3 and ≥3 kg, respectively ( p = 0.6); and 174/329 (53%) in those on abacavir versus 77/138 (56%) in those on zidovudine (adjusted odds ratio 1.8, 95% confidence interval 1.0–3.2). Conclusion Our data suggest that abacavir may be used safely in infants <28 days old or who weigh <3 kg.","journal":"Antiviral Therapy","year":2023,"id":369995,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.813,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":328863,"name":"Helena Rabie","orcid":"0000-0001-6336-2963","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":346852,"name":"Karl‐Günter Technau","orcid":"0000-0001-7367-7512","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":542919,"name":"Brian Eley","orcid":"0000-0003-0811-0098","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":559189,"name":"Nosisa Sipambo","orcid":"0000-0003-0058-6884","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":295667,"name":"Mark F. Cotton","orcid":"0000-0003-2559-6034","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":110156,"name":"Andrew Boulle","orcid":"0000-0002-7713-8062","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":252299,"name":"Robin Wood","orcid":"0000-0002-4276-7117","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":39224,"name":"Frank Tanser","orcid":"0000-0001-9797-0000","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315057,"name":"Geoffrey Fatti","orcid":"0000-0002-6467-662X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":4469,"name":"Matthias Egger","orcid":"0000-0001-7462-5132","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":110157,"name":"Mary‐Ann Davies","orcid":"0000-0001-8496-6475","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1129179,"name":"and International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) Southern Africa","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1128872,"name":"Reneé de Waal","orcid":"0000-0001-6171-2181","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":12,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:15:32.670954Z","pmid":"37038365","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}