Correcting for mortality among patients lost to follow up on antiretroviral therapy in South Africa: a cohort analysis.

Background: Loss to follow-up (LTF) challenges the reporting of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes, since it encompasses patients alive but lost to programme and deaths misclassified as LTF. We describe LTF before and after correction for mortality in a primary care ART programme with linkages to the national vital registration system.

Methods And Findings: We included 6411 patients enrolled on ART between March 2001 and June 2007.

Promoting adherence to antiretroviral therapy: the experience from a primary care setting in Khayelitsha, South Africa.

Objective: To describe the approach used to promote adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and to present the outcomes in the first primary care public sector ART project in South Africa.

Design: The study is a prospective open cohort, including all adult patients naive to previous ART who received antiretroviral treatment in Khayelitsha, from May 2001 to the end of 2002. Patients were followed until their most recent visit before 31 July 2003.

Outcomes after two years of providing antiretroviral treatment in Khayelitsha, South Africa.

Background: A community-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme was established in 2001 in a South African township to explore the operational issues involved in providing ART in the public sector in resource-limited settings and demonstrate the feasibility of such a service.

Methods: Data was analysed on a cohort of patients with symptomatic HIV disease and a CD4 lymphocyte count < 200 x 10 cells/l. The programme used standardized protocols (using generic medicines whenever possible), a team-approach to clinical care and a patient-centred approach to promote adherence.