When will sub-Saharan Africa adopt HIV treatment for all?

Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title When will sub-Saharan Africa adopt HIV treatment for all?
 
Creator Gupta, Somya Granich, Reuben
 
Subject Policy Treatment for all; time lag; WHO guidelines; policy adoption
Description Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) HIV treatment guidelines have been used by various countries to revise their national guidelines. Our study discusses the national policy response to the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and quantifies delays in adopting the WHO guidelines published in 2009, 2013 and 2015.Methods: From the Internet, health authorities and experts, and community members, we collected 59 published HIV guidelines from 33 countries in the sub-Saharan African region, and abstracted dates of publication and antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligibility criteria. For these 33 countries, representing 97% regional HIV burden in 2015, the number of months taken to adopt the WHO 2009, 2013 and/or 2015 guidelines were calculated to determine the average delay in months needed to publish revised national guidelines.Findings: Of the 33 countries, 3 (6% regional burden) are recommending ART according to the WHO 2015 guidelines (irrespective of CD4 count); 19 (65% regional burden) are recommending ART according to the WHO 2013 guidelines (CD4 count ≤ 500 cells/mm3); and 11 (26% regional burden) according to the WHO 2009 guidelines (CD4 count ≤ 350 cells/mm3). The average time lag to WHO 2009 guidelines adoption in 33 countries was 24 (range 3–56) months. The 22 that have adopted the WHO 2013 guidelines took an average of 10 (range 0–36) months, whilst the three countries that adopted the WHO 2015 guidelines took an average of 8 (range 7–9) months.Conclusion: There is an urgent need to shorten the time lag in adopting and implementing the new WHO guidelines recommending ‘treatment for all’ to achieve the 90-90-90 targets.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2016-08-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Policy analysis
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajhivmed.v17i1.459
 
Source Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine; Vol 17, No 1 (2016); 6 pages 2078-6751 1608-9693
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/hivmed/article/view/459/870 https://sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/hivmed/article/view/459/871 https://sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/hivmed/article/view/459/872 https://sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/hivmed/article/view/459/869
 
Coverage Sub-Saharan Africa 2009-2016 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2016 Somya Gupta, Reuben Granich https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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