Trends in Prevalence of Advanced HIV Disease at Antiretroviral Therapy Enrollment - 10 Countries, 2004-2015.

Monitoring prevalence of advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease (i.e., CD4+ T-cell count <200 cells/μL) among persons starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) is important to understand ART program outcomes, inform HIV prevention strategy, and forecast need for adjunctive therapies.*,†,§ To assess trends in prevalence of advanced disease at ART initiation in 10 high-burden countries during 2004-2015, records of 694,138 ART enrollees aged ≥15 years from 797 ART facilities were analyzed. Availability of national electronic medical record systems allowed up-to-date evaluation of trends in Haiti (2004-2015), Mozambique (2004-2014), and Namibia (2004-2012), where prevalence of advanced disease at ART initiation declined from 75% to 34% (p<0.001), 73% to 37% (p<0.001), and 80% to 41% (p<0.001), respectively. Significant declines in prevalence of advanced disease during 2004-2011 were observed in Nigeria, Swaziland, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The encouraging declines in prevalence of advanced disease at ART enrollment are likely due to scale-up of testing and treatment services and ART-eligibility guidelines encouraging earlier ART initiation. However, in 2015, approximately a third of new ART patients still initiated ART with advanced HIV disease. To reduce prevalence of advanced disease at ART initiation, adoption of World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended "treat-all" guidelines and strategies to facilitate earlier HIV testing and treatment are needed to reduce HIV-related mortality and HIV incidence

Antiretroviral therapy enrollment characteristics and outcomes among HIV-infected adolescents and young adults compared with older adults--seven African countries, 2004-2013.

Although scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) since 2005 has contributed to declines of about 30% in the global annual number of human immunodeficiency (HIV)-related deaths and declines in global HIV incidence, estimated annual HIV-related deaths among adolescents have increased by about 50% and estimated adolescent HIV incidence has been relatively stable. In 2012, an estimated 2,500 (40%) of all 6,300 daily new HIV infections occurred among persons aged 15-24 years. Difficulty enrolling adolescents and young adults in ART and high rates of loss to follow-up (LTFU) after ART initiation might be contributing to mortality and HIV incidence in this age group, but data are limited. To evaluate age-related ART retention challenges, data from retrospective cohort studies conducted in seven African countries among 16,421 patients, aged ≥15 years at enrollment, who initiated ART during 2004-2012 were analyzed. ART enrollment and outcome data were compared among three groups defined by age at enrollment: adolescents and young adults (aged 15-24 years), middle-aged adults (aged 25-49 years), and older adults (aged ≥50 years). Enrollees aged 15-24 years were predominantly female (81%-92%), commonly pregnant (3%-32% of females), unmarried (54%-73%), and, in four countries with employment data, unemployed (53%-86%). In comparison, older adults were more likely to be male (p<0.001), employed (p<0.001), and married, (p<0.05 in five countries). Compared with older adults, adolescents and young adults had higher LTFU rates in all seven countries, reaching statistical significance in three countries in crude and multivariable analyses. Evidence-based interventions to reduce LTFU for adolescent and young adult ART enrollees could help reduce mortality and HIV incidence in this age group

Evaluation of a training program to increase the capacity of health care providers to provide antiretroviral therapy to pediatric patients in sub -Saharan Africa

More than 810,000 people from sub-Saharan Africa had accessed antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2005. This represented a marked scale up in provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa but there are still many challenges in delivering ART especially to children. Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) offered the Swaziland government this service for the pediatric population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of BIPAI\u27s health care provider training program for the provision of ART to pediatric population. The specific aims were: (1) to present a comprehensive description of barriers to effective delivery of ART to children in Swaziland; (2) to propose a health care provider training program based on a theoretical planning model; (3) to compare the Baylor training program with the proposed health care provider training program; (4) to assess coverage and delivery of the training program, and (5) to assess the impact of training on physicians\u27 and nurses\u27 knowledge of HIV/AIDS and HIV-related pediatric practices, attitudes towards people with AIDS, and self-efficacy to provide ART. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with both BIPAI trainers and doctors and nurses from Swaziland. Quantitative data were collected from pre-test and post-test survey from the BIPAI training program in Swaziland. A systematic literature review was conducted on the subject of factors affecting health care providers in delivering ART. Transcribed interviews were coded for themes using a deductive approach. Quantitative data analysis involved descriptive statistics, univariate and bivariate analysis, and factor analysis using Stata-8.2, and SPSS-14. The training program significantly increased health care providers\u27 knowledge about HIV/AIDS, ART, and pediatric care, self-efficacy to provide various aspects of care to pediatric patients and positive health care providers\u27 attitudes towards people living with AIDS. There is a general lack of factual information about ART in Swaziland. Health care providers have fears about treating pediatric HIV patients because they do not feel adequately prepared to manage them. These barriers are affecting provision of ART and need to be taken into account when designing new and improved care, treatment, and training programs

Strengthening Health Systems for Chronic Care: Leveraging HIV Programs to Support Diabetes Services in Ethiopia and Swaziland

The scale-up of HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa has catalyzed the development of highly effective chronic care systems. The strategies, systems, and tools developed to support life-long HIV care and treatment are locally owned contextually appropriate resources, many of which could be adapted to support continuity care for noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCD), such as diabetes mellitus (DM). We conducted two proof-of-concept studies to further the understanding of the status of NCD programs and the feasibility and effectiveness of adapting HIV program-related tools and systems for patients with DM. In Swaziland, a rapid assessment illustrated gaps in the approaches used to support DM services at 15 health facilities, despite the existence of chronic care systems at HIV clinics in the same hospitals, health centers, and clinics. In Ethiopia, a pilot study found similar gaps in DM services at baseline and illustrated the potential to rapidly improve the quality of care and treatment for DM by adapting HIV-specific policies, systems, and tools

Strengthening Health Systems for Chronic Care: Leveraging HIV Programs to Support Diabetes Services in Ethiopia and Swaziland

The scale-up of HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa has catalyzed the development of highly effective chronic care systems. The strategies, systems, and tools developed to support life-long HIV care and treatment are locally owned contextually appropriate resources, many of which could be adapted to support continuity care for noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCD), such as diabetes mellitus (DM). We conducted two proof-of-concept studies to further the understanding of the status of NCD programs and the feasibility and effectiveness of adapting HIV program-related tools and systems for patients with DM. In Swaziland, a rapid assessment illustrated gaps in the approaches used to support DM services at 15 health facilities, despite the existence of chronic care systems at HIV clinics in the same hospitals, health centers, and clinics. In Ethiopia, a pilot study found similar gaps in DM services at baseline and illustrated the potential to rapidly improve the quality of care and treatment for DM by adapting HIV-specific policies, systems, and tools