BOSTON – Diagnosing HIV infections in the home and starting persons who tested positive on antiretroviral therapy on the same day significantly increased the likelihood that the HIV-positive individuals would show up at a clinic for care within 3 months of diagnosis. It also improved their odds for having viral suppression at 12 months, compared with those who tested positive but were referred to a clinic for starting ART therapy, the standard of care.
Among 278 residents of the southern African nation of Lesotho, 68.8% of those randomized to an intervention in which they were offered same-day, home-based ART initiation and were given a 30-day supply of medication had linked to care by 3 months of follow-up, compared with 43.1% of those who were diagnosed and then referred to a health care facility to be started on ART, reported Niklaus D. Labhardt, MD, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, and his colleagues.
Neil Osterweil, Frontline Medical News
Dr. Niklaus D. Labhardt
“This easy addition to the current practice of home-based testing has the potential to improve practice sub-Saharan African when it will become part of future guidelines and policies,” he said at a media briefing following his presentation of the data in an oral abstract session.