Five-Year Outcomes of the China National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program

Abstract

The National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program reduced mortality among adult patients in China with AIDS to rates similar to those of other low- or middle-income countries. A cumulative immunologic treatment failure rate of 50% after 5 years, due to the limited availability of second-line regimens, is of great concern.

Challenges and potential barriers to the uptake of antiretroviral-based prevention in Asia and the Pacific region

“…Late diagnosis is still an issue; for example, an analysis of data from China's National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program during 2002-09 suggested a significant association between low baseline CD4 cell count (30% with CD4 <50 cells mL -1 ) with high initial mortality following treatment initiation, emphasising the need to begin treatment sooner. 57,58 A retrospective analysis on the prevention benefit of ART in China suggests a 26% relative reduction in HIV transmission in the treated group, supporting earlier observations and supporting the feasibility of such a public health prevention strategy on a national scale. 59,60 However, the protective effect was only observed during the first year and a nonsignificant protective effect was seen thereafter.…”

Establishment of In-House Quantitative Real-Time RT-PCR Assay for HIV-1 Viral Load Measurement: Application to Evaluate Efficacy of ART in Ghanaian Patients in an Urban Setting

“…In Ghana, HIV-infected patients with CD4+ T-cell counts <350 cells/μL currently receive government-funded HAART, but methods of monitoring the effectiveness of therapy or disease progression are still prohibitively expensive for most patients as in other resource limited countries [38,39]. The high-cost, sophisticated procedural requirements and maintenance need to limit HIV RNA assays to few central laboratories.…”

AIDS is not over

“…Although China's National Free Antiretroviral Treatment Program started in 2002, much improvement is still needed [6].…”