CD4 and AIDS: This observation has been replicated in previous studies (Wondimeneh et al., 2013; Sarkar et al., 2016) but other authors have demonstrated lower baseline CD4+ cell counts, increased HIV viral load, and AIDS-related comorbidities in HIV-HBV co-infected patients [Idoko et al., 2009; Thio et al., 2013; The Canadian Observational Cohort (CANOC) Collaboration et al., 2019].