Loading...
When HIV infection started to evolve into a chronic, treatable disease in the late 1990s, data began to emerge indicating poor rates of access to and retention in long-term HIV care. Now, for the first time, researchers have demonstrated an association between maintenance of medical care and better chances of survival.
The Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital database was used to identify 2619 HIV-infected men who received their first VA prescription for antiretroviral therapy (ART) after January 1, 1997, during a VA clinic visit and who survived at least 1 year beyond that visit. CD4-cell–count data were available for all study participants. The analysis focused on overall survival, starting 1 year beyond the first clinic appointment, and stratif…