We have reported a prevalence of 4.6% KS among HIV positive patients attending KCMC hospital in the 4-year study period from 2012 to 2015. This prevalence is slightly higher than that reported by Mavura et al., 2015 in the same region [10]. Furthermore, similar studies done within the past 5 years in the same area but in different settings, reported lower prevalence of KS. These studies were conducted in South Africa, northwestern Tanzania, and northern Tanzania, and reported prevalences of 3.4, 2.4 and 4% respectively. Other studies conducted in mediterranean countries and within the East African region [6] reported KS prevalence of 10–20, and 12.3%, which is higher than what we have reported herein. These differences may be due to heterogeneity in the distribution of KS within Tanzania as well as elsewhere. This may also be contributed by other factors, including length of the study period, under/over reporting and misdiagnosis.
Our data showed an association between CD4 cell count and KS, where low CD4 cell count (≤200) was associated with increased odds for KS 28.4 fold (p = 0.003). Similar observations were made by other studies conducted in Nigeria [16] and northwestern Tanzania [8]. These similar findings strongly suggest that a low CD4 cell count is associated with KS. A possible explanation for this is that KS strongly impacts on immune responses. More studies on immune response mechanisms in KS will possibly help provide explanations for observed differences in prevalence of KS and CD4 cell count.
Furthermore, our findings pointed out that the HIV positive non-ART users were not more associated with KS compared to ART users. Use of ART was not shown to have a protective effect against HIV and thus KS as previously shown by other investigators from different geographical areas [9, 12]. Most patients at the time of this study were eligible for ART if they presented WHO HIV stage IV or with CD4 cell counts < 200 cells/μl. The protective role of ART against KS has been explored extensively by other investigators [13, 18]. ART raises body immunity in HIV infected persons, and this may indirectly benefit KS patients, therefore the interaction between HIV-KS and ART should be further investigated. Early initiation of ART as per newly established WHO standards is also highly encouraged as it may as well be protective against KS. However, there are increasing concerns of ART resistance worldwide and more so in East Africa [14, 17]. In addition to ART resistance, there are policy issues that need to be addressed to help people re-engage in care and reduce loss of patients from care, as these are important factors contributing to the development of drug resistance [18]. ART drug resistance was reported to be around 14.9% in ART-naïve patients in Tanzania in 2008 and has risen to 25.4% in 2016 [19, 20].
Our study findings showed that females were more likely to be diagnosed with KS compared to males (p < 0.009). This observation is different from that reported in other studies conducted in Nigeria [21] and Dar-es-salaam [9] by Kagu et al., 2006 and Koski et al., 2015, respectively, as well as by Ferlay et al., who reported an incidence of 5.5 in males against 2.9 in females [5]. Reasons for this disparity are yet to be elucidated. Moreover, a study done in northwestern Tanzania reported AIDS-related KS to be more severe and to progress faster in females. The study did not identify reasons for the disparity, but ruled out association with immunological responses since there was no significant difference between CD4 cell counts in males and females [8].
Our study observed age to be significantly associated with KS. Patients over 35 years were 25.7 times more likely to have KS than the age groups below (p < 0.007). Similar findings were reported in studies conducted elsewhere [10]. This may be explained by reduction of immunity as people get older, putting them at increased risk for age-related chronic diseases, including cancer.
Treatment of HIV patients by traditional healers had increased risk for suffering from KS. This may be explained by traditional healers contributing to delaying of ART usage by HIV patients in the process of seeking treatment from the healers, thus increasing their risk for KS. The same finding was observed in Cameroon [22, 23].
Our results generally show that there is still need for more well-defined approaches in curbing KS among the HIV seroconverted patients. Moreover, the ongoing interventions need to be strengthened, especially early initiation of ART regardless of CD4 cell count as recommended by the WHO, because ART has been associated with better prognosis and prolonged life of HIV-positive patients, including lowering of KS seroprevalence when proper adherence is observed. Other interventions include increasing awareness among HIV patients on compliance/adherence to ART; nutritional care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS to improve their immunity and adherence to ART; health care education especially as patients’ age, as well as health seeking attitude. We also propose that monitoring of ART resistance and virological failure, as reported by other investigators, should also be carried out in Tanzania. Although we have not directly studied this, we propose that there could be an association between increased KS prevalence and virological failure, as reported to be an emerging issue in HIV patient care.
Limitations
Our study had a number of limitations. Difficulty in acquiring patient information from hospital files led to limiting the number of study participants, as those patients who lacked the required information for the study were excluded from the study. Potential confounding factors may have been responsible for differences in the findings. For example, genetic and hormonal differences between males and females may have contributed to the observed differences in the analyzed data. This also warrants further mechanistic studies.
Finally, our study highlights the need for continued efforts in combating HIV/AIDS and its associated KS in Tanzania. Specialized treatment for KS and other cancers should be advocated. This study also highlights the need for regular evaluation of HIV/AIDS interventions and guidelines established by the WHO against the HIV pandemic in different zones and regions of the World, especially in areas with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS. We also propose further studies to evaluate the level of ART resistance in the region, to elucidate its association with prevalence of KS in HIV patients. Efforts are undertaken in the coastal region (Dar es Salaam) and south-central part of Tanzania, where virological failure was recently reported to be 14.9 and 25.4% respectively. However, we are not aware of a country-wide approach being put in place yet.