Background: Large HIV care programs frequently subsidize antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and CD4 tests, but patients must often pay for other health-related drugs and services. We estimated the financial burden of health care for households with HIV-infected adults taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Côte d'Ivoire.
Methodology/principal Findings: We conducted a cross-sectional survey.
Objective: To assess the rates and determinants of mortality, loss to follow-up and immunological failure in a nongovernmental organization-implemented program of access to antiretroviral treatment in Côte d'Ivoire.
Methods: In each new treatment center, professionals were trained in HIV care, and a computerized data system was implemented. Individual patient and program level determinants of survival, loss to follow-up and immunological failure were assessed by multivariate analysis.
We followed a cohort of 592 HIV-infected adults during 1292 person-years in Abidjan before the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era. On the basis of the exhaustive monitoring of nonantiretroviral drugs actually delivered to the patients and of the real cost of drugs at the cohort center's pharmacy during the study period, we estimated the mean cost of drugs per person per year (MCPPY) overall, by drug characteristics, and by patients' baseline CD4 cell count. The MCPPY was dollar 198 US overall and dolalr 83 US, dollar 101 US, dollar 186 US, dollar 233 US, and dollar 459 US in patients with a baseline CD4 count > or = 500 cells/mm, 350 to 499 cells/mm, 200 to 349 cells/mm, 100 to 199 cells/mm, and <100 cells/mm, respectively.
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