why choose us

300×250 Ad Slot

Research Article: Prior exposure to antiretroviral therapy among adult patients presenting for HIV treatment initiation or reinitiation in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

Date Published: 2023-11-19

Abstract:
Objectives As countries have scaled up access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, attrition rates of up to 30% annually have created a large pool of individuals who initiate treatment with prior ART experience. Little is known about the proportion of non-naïve reinitiators within the population presenting for treatment initiation. Design Systematic review of published articles and abstracts reporting proportions of non-naïve adult patients initiating ART in sub-Saharan Africa. Data sources PubMed, Embase Elsevier, Web of Science Core Collection, International AIDS Society conferences, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections conferences. Eligibility criteria Clinical trials and observational studies; reporting on adults in sub-Saharan Africa who initiated lifelong ART; published in English between 1 January 2018 and 11 July 2023 and with data collected after January 2016. Initiator self-report, laboratory discernment of antiretroviral metabolites, and viral suppression at initiation or in the medical record were accepted as evidence of prior exposure. Data extraction and synthesis We captured study and sample characteristics, proportions with previous ART exposure and the indicator of previous exposure reported. We report results of each eligible study, estimate the risk of bias and identify gaps in the literature. Results Of 2740 articles, 11 articles describing 12 cohorts contained sufficient information for the review. Proportions of initiators with evidence of prior ART use ranged from 5% (self-report only) to 53% (presence of ART metabolites in hair or blood sample). The vast majority of screened studies did not report naïve/non-naïve status. Metrics used to determine and report non-naïve proportions were inconsistent and difficult to interpret. Conclusions The proportion of patients initiating HIV treatment who are truly ART naïve is not well documented. It is likely that 20%–50% of ART patients who present for ART are reinitiators. Standard reporting metrics and diligence in reporting are needed, as is research to understand the reluctance of patients to report prior ART exposure. PROSPERO registration number CRD42022324136.

Introduction:
The successful scale-up of access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa has produced a growing population of patients who have interrupted or stopped treatment sometime since they started, either permanently or temporarily. While very recent numbers on attrition from ART programmes are scarce, retention in care rates for the region were reported to average 78% at 12 months after treatment initiation in a review published in 2015, suggesting that for a cohort of patients initiating…

Read more

300×250 Ad Slot