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The International AIDS Society
journal “AIDS” has reported that New York City (NYC) public health officials
launched an effective program to locate HIV-positive patients who were “lost to
follow-up" and reconnected them to treatment services. The study, authored
by Chi-Chi N. Udeagu, MPH, and colleagues of the NYC Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene, emphasized that restarting antiretroviral therapy is
particularly significant with the current emphasis on HIV
"treatment-as-prevention.” The article is available on the AIDS journal
homepage and will appear in the June 12 print edition.
City public health officials used
the NYC HIV surveillance registry to find patients who had tested HIV-positive
earlier but did not have current information on routine laboratory test
results. Public health case workers made intensive efforts by mail, home
visits, telephone calls, and Internet searches to contact the "lost to
follow-up" patients. Once they found the patients, health officials
offered them help and urged them to restart HIV care and re-establish treatment
services. The officials also asked patients to identify sexual partners who
might be at risk for HIV. Case workers located 689 out of 797 patients believed
to be lost to follow-up. Health officials learned that 33 percent of patients
were up-to-date with HIV treatment, but either the database had not recorded
their latest lab results yet or the health department did not require the HIV
medical providers the patients had visited—such as HIV clinical trial units and
veterans hospitals— to report lab results. Five percent of located patients
were incarcerated or had moved, and two percent had died. Health officials
located and verified that 409 patients were not up-to-date with HIV care. Once
located, 77 percent of these patients accepted an appointment at an HIV clinic,
and 57 percent returned to treatment.
Overall, the program succeeded in
identifying approximately half of the initial patients listed as being lost to
follow-up and in re-engaging most of them with treatment services.
Approximately half of patients lost to follow-up agreed to be interviewed for
partner services. These efforts resulted in identifying three new HIV-infection
diagnoses.
The full report, “Lost—or Just Not
Following Up? Public Health Effort to Re-Engage HIV-Infected Persons Lost to
Follow-Up into HIV Medical Care,” was published in the journal AIDS (2013; 108
(120)).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
