RESEARCH ARTICLE
Trends in Care and Treatment for Persons Aged ≥13 Years with HIV Infection 17 U.S. Jurisdictions, 2012-2015
Debra L. Karch1, *, Xueyuan Dong2, Jing Shi2, H. I. Hall1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 12
First Page: 90
Last Page: 105
Publisher ID: TOAIDJ-12-90
DOI: 10.2174/1874613601812010090
Article History:
Received Date: 1/6/2018Revision Received Date: 22/8/2018
Acceptance Date: 9/9/2018
Electronic publication date: 28/09/2018
Collection year: 2018
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Care and viral suppression national goals for HIV infection are not being met for many at-risk groups. Assessment of the trends in national outcomes for linkage to care, receipt of care, and viral suppression among these groups is necessary to reduce transmission.
Methods:
Data reported to the National HIV Surveillance System by December 2016 were used to identify cases of HIV infection among persons aged 13 years and older in one of 17 identified jurisdictions with complete laboratory reporting. We estimated national trends in HIV-related linkage to care, receipt of care and viral suppression using estimated annual percent change from 2012-2015 for various characteristics of interest, overall and stratified by sex and race/ethnicity.
Results:
Overall, trends in linkage to and receipt of care and viral suppression increased from 2012-2015. Generally, linkage to and receipt of care increased among young black and Hispanic/Latino males, those with infection attributed to male-to-male sexual contact, and those not in stage 3 [AIDS] at HIV diagnosis. All sub-groups showed improvement in viral suppression. Within years, there remains a substantial disparity in receipt of care and viral suppression among racial/ethnic groups.
Conclusion:
While trends are encouraging, scientifically proven prevention programs targeted to high-risk populations are the foundation for stopping transmission of HIV infection. Frequent testing to support early diagnosis and prompt linkage to medical care, particularly among young men who have male to male sexual contact, black and Hispanic/Latino populations, are key to reducing transmission at all stages of disease.
