Low retention of HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy in 11 clinical centres in West Africa.

Objective: To study factors associated with the probability of retention in antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes in West Africa.

Methods: The International epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) in West Africa is a prospective, operational, observational cohort study based on collaboration between 11 cohorts of HIV-infected adult patients in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Mali and Senegal. All patients aged 16 and older at ART initiation, with documented gender and date of ART initiation, were included.