Abstract
ABSTRACT : The international community is committed to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Achieving this goal depends on the ability of HIV programs to provide treatment to all people living with HIV / AIDS and maintain these people on treatment with a suppressed viral load for as long as possible. Considerable progress has been made in recent years in access to treatment, but program performance remains weak in Africa, particularly in West Africa.To better understand the obstacles in the implementation of HIV programs we describe the evolution of HIV care in a reference center in Senegal over a period of 20 years and in the context of international and national recommendations. We investigate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for eligible people, retention on ART at 12, 24 and 36 months and access to and control of viral load during follow-up.This work is based on the analysis of the data available in the computerized medical file of 3651 treatment-naive people over the age of 15 who entered the Fann Outpatient Treatment Center (ATC) in Dakar, Senegal between 1998 and 2015. Eligibility is defined according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization taking into account the level of CD4 count (<200, <350 and <500 cells / μl until 2010, 2013 and 2015, respectively) and the clinical stage. Free ART is provided in Senegal from 2004. Thus, the evolution of HIV care is studied over four periods: 1998-2003 (P1), 2004-2010 (P2), 2011-2013 (P3), 2014-2015 (P4).Of the 3,651 ART-naïve patients, 2535 (69%) are eligible and 1503 (41%) initiate ART during their follow-up at CTA. The proportion of eligible patients on ART is 25%, 47%, 75% and 82%, at P1, P2, P3 and P4 respectively. This increase is associated with a significant reduction in the median time to ART, from 5.6 months in 1998-2003 to 0.8 months in period 4. Eligible individuals with low CD4 count were more likely to initiate timely treatment.Retention rates are 84%, 77% and 73% at 12, 24 and 36 months, respectively. There is an improvement in retention for the most recent period (2014-2016) with rates reaching 90% and 82% at 12 and 24 months. At 36 months, this improvement in the last period is no longer observed. At 36 months, male sex and residence outside Dakar are predictors of being lost to follow-up, whereas advanced age, advanced clinical stage and CD4 <200 cells / mm3 are associated with higher risk of mortality. The availability of viral load at 12, 24 or 36 months reaches about 40% and remains stable according to study periods. The virological success measured from the available viral loads reaches 64% at a 50 copies/ml threshold and 84% at a 1000 copies/ml threshold.The evolution of HIV care in CTA is marked by significant progress in access to treatment, the benefit of which is limited by the persistence of difficulties in retention on ART and in the follow-up of virological control, difficulties that need to be addressed to achieve the ambitious goals of UNAIDS.