Continuum of HIV Care — Does the VA Do It Better?

Despite very high rates of HIV suppression among patients receiving and adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART), the proportion of HIV-infected persons in the U.S. with undetectable HIV RNA is estimated to be ≤25%. This discrepancy has focused attention on the continuum of HIV care, emphasizing the fact that the most difficult issues relate to HIV diagnosis, linkage to care, and retention in care. Now, investigators have used data from the HIV Atlanta Veterans Affairs Cohort Study (HAVACS) to model the continuum of HIV care at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center (AVAMC) Infectious Disease Clinic. They used two methodologies to develop the continuum: one in which each stage of care was dependent on the previous stage and a second in…