Patients returning after interrupting HIV care have a high risk of short-term illness and death

Aidsmap reports:

HIV-positive patients who return to care after being lost to follow-up are five times more likely to die in the short term than patients who remain in HIV care, French investigators report in the online edition of AIDS.

“Increased efforts are needed to reduce loss to follow-up and encourage those patients who no longer attend clinic to return to care,” recommend the authors.

Thanks to effective antiretroviral treatment, the prognosis of many HIV-positive individuals is now near-normal. However, despite the benefits of treatment and care some patients stop attending their HIV clinic.

Read the full article on Aidsmap [1].

Ndiaye B et al. Characteristics of and outcomes in HIV-infected patients who return to care after loss to follow-up. AIDS 23 (online edition), 2009. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0b013e32832e3469 [2]

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of and outcomes in HIV-infected patients who returned to care after loss to follow-up (LTFU) in Northern France, between 1997 and 2006. Among the 1007 patients who were followed, 135 patients (13.4%) were LTFU during the study period. Of these 135, 74 (54.8%) returned to care after LTFU. The median duration of LTFU was 19 months. Upon returning to care, 33 out of 74 patients (44.6%) had CD4 cell counts less than 200/mm3 and/or AIDS. Patients who returned to care after LTFU were five times more likely to die than patients who attended clinic regularly.