Introduction: Disengagement and re-engagement with antiretroviral therapy (ART) are common in South Africa, but routine monitoring is insufficient to inform policy development. To address this gap, Anova implemented the 2020 National Adherence Guidelines' re-engagement standard operating procedure (re-engagement SOP) and collected additional data to describe the characteristics of re-engagement visits to inform HIV programmes.
Methods: Between July and December 2022, we conducted a study at nine primary healthcare facilities in Johannesburg.
Re-engagement, which involves bringing individuals who have fallen out of HIV care back into treatment, is important in the ongoing care of individuals with HIV, especially in regions with high prevalence and resource limitations. Despite extensive treatment programs, a significant number of people living with HIV in South Africa disengage from care due to different barriers. To address this, the South African Department of Health (DoH) introduced guidelines to support re-engagement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Increasingly, there is a need for health authority scale up of successfully piloted differentiated models of antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery. However, there is a paucity of evidence on system-wide outcomes after scale-up. In the Cape Town health district, stable adult patients were referred to adherence clubs (ACs) - a group model of ART delivery with five visits per year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To ascertain estimates of adult patients, recorded as lost to follow-up (LTFU) within antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes, who have self-transferred care, died or truly stopped ART in low- and middle-income countries.
Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Science Direct, LILACS, IndMed and AIM databases (2003-2013) and IAS/AIDS conference abstracts (2011-2013) were searched for tracing studies reporting the proportion of traced patients found to have self-transferred, died or stopped ART. These estimates were then combined using random-effects meta-analysis.
Introduction: The prognosis of patients with HIV in Africa has improved with the widespread use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) but these successes are threatened by low rates of long-term retention in care. There are limited data on predictors of retention in care, particularly from rural sites.
Methods: Prospective cohort analysis of outcome measures in adults from a rural HIV care programme in Madwaleni, Eastern Cape, South Africa.