Sustainable HIV treatment in Africa through viral-load-informed differentiated care.

ABSTRACT: There are inefficiencies in current approaches to monitoring patients on antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. Patients typically attend clinics every 1 to 3 months for clinical assessment. The clinic costs are comparable with the costs of the drugs themselves and CD4 counts are measured every 6 months, but patients are rarely switched to second-line therapies. To ensure sustainability of treatment programmes, a transition to more cost-effective delivery of antiretroviral therapy is needed. In contrast to the CD4 count, measurement of the level of HIV RNA in plasma (the viral load) provides a direct measure of the current treatment effect. Viral-load-informed differentiated care is a means of tailoring care so that those with suppressed viral load visit the clinic less frequently a

SUBMITTER: Working Group on Modelling of Antiretroviral Therapy Monitoring Strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4932825 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature