Furthermore, it is worrying that, from the total of participants, 39% had a CD4/CD8 ratio < 0.30, considered as a marker of profound immune damage, with a high risk of non-AIDS-defining events or death [16]; plus, only 7.8% of all patients had an optimal CD4/CD8 ratio of ≥ 0.8 (data not shown). Here, CD8A is linked to AIDS.