Abstract
This report presents the results from studies conducted between 2009 and 2011 in Senegal in the framework of the ANRS 1215 research program aimed at documenting the long-term impact of therapeutic treatment with antiretroviral drugs. The 400 participants from ANRS cohort 1215 began treatment between 1998 and 2002; they were among the first people living with HIV in Africa to receive ARV therapies. These studies were conducted using a multidisciplinary approach. The main themes are: - Medical science: immune restoration among patients who were the most immunocompromised, virologic failure and resistance mutations, changes in treatment efficacy and mortality, a description of comorbidities, an investigation of the effects of aging, and sexual health. - Public health and epidemiology: changes in treatment adherence, socioeconomic outcomes for patients, sociomedical conditions and determinants for treatment failure, and mental health. - Social sciences: patient's experience of the disease and treatment over the long term, social aspects of childbearing for HIV-positive women on ARVs, perceptions and practices related to prevention of sexual transmission of HIV for patients on ARVs, perceptions of lipodystrophy, vulnerability among widows and the aged, critical analysis of the degree of stigmatization, cost analysis of treatment and drugs, and systems for ethical research. Each of these themes led to specific, often overlapping, studies that used a complementary approach. This report is organized into five sections, with a standardized format for writing conventions, presentation, and bylines, according to the uses in the dominant disciplinary field for each part.