With regard to other findings of this study, anaemia in HIV-positive patients has been shown to be an independent predictor of clinical response, with a study showing that severe anaemia at baseline was associated with 13 times higher risk of death within the first year of ART initiation.26 Another study showed that an increasing severity of anaemia was associated with higher rates of TB and mortality, and was superior to the CD4 cell count as a predictive marker in patients on ART.27 Here, CD4 is linked to anemia.