JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's 21-day coronavirus lockdown presents an unusual challenge for a nation with the world's highest burden of HIV. In order to remain healthy, those on antiretrovirals need to venture out of their homes for their lifesaving medication -- a move that puts them at greater
Retention in care
News
May 4, 2020
Resource
November 28, 2019
The World Health Organization recommends "same-day" initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patients who are eligible and ready. Identifying efficient, safe, and feasible procedures for determining same-day eligibility and readiness is now a priority. The Simplified Algorithm for Treatment Eligibility (SLATE) study evaluated a clinical algorithm that allows healthcare workers to determine eligibility for same-day treatment and to initiate ART at the patient’s first clinic visit.
News
November 28, 2019
Half of those attending HIV clinics in South Africa and Kenya were eligible to start HIV treatment after simple checks that could be performed by any healthcare worker, and same-day treatment initiation modestly improved the uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART), results of a randomised trial pu
News
November 28, 2019
Programmes to scale-up HIV testing and treatment in countries in sub-Saharan Africa may have had less impact on new HIV infections than hoped, partly because they haven’t paid enough attention to groups that contribute disproportionately to HIV acquisition and transmission, experts say.
Resource
November 26, 2019
A new report by UNAIDS, Power to the people, released ahead of World AIDS Day, shows that where people and communities living with and affected by H
News
November 20, 2019
Men who have sex with men in Africa are more likely to test for HIV than other African men, but are significantly less likely to be on treatment or virally suppressed.
Resource
November 19, 2019
Community ART Refill Groups (CARGs) are an antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery model where clients voluntarily form into groups, and a group member visits the clinic to collect ART for all group members. In late 2016, Zimbabwe began a nationwide rollout of the CARG model. We conducted a qualitative evaluation to assess the perceived effects of this new national service delivery model.
Resource
November 19, 2019
Tenofovir is less toxic than other nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors used in antiretroviral therapy (ART) and may improve retention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected patients on ART.
Resource
November 13, 2019
Retention in care is associated with improved virological control and survival among HIV-infected children. However, retention of children in HIV care remains a challenge. This study demonstrates the value of routine laboratory data in monitoring diagnosis, retention and VL suppression in HIV-infected children. This approach is scalable, can be reported near real-time, is relatively inexpensive to implement, and provides a tool for improving paediatric HIV services until clinical databases can assume this role.
Resource
November 13, 2019
An estimated 7.9 million people were living with HIV in South Africa in 2017, with 63.3% of them remaining in antiretroviral therapy (ART) care and 62.9% accessing ART. Poor retention in care and suboptimal adherence to ART undermine the successful efforts of initiating people living with HIV on ART. To address these challenges, the antiretroviral adherence club intervention was designed to streamline ART services to ‘stable’ patients. Nevertheless, it is poorly understood exactly how and why and under what health system conditions the adherence club intervention works.
