Ten years of commitment to persons living with HIV-AIDS: Evaluation of themanagement in three ambulatory treatment centers of the French Red Cross inAfrica

Abstract

The French Red Cross (FRC) has developed a strategy for the follow-up of people livingwith HIV-AIDS in Africa by setting-up and managing healthcare centers specialized in themanagement of HIV infection. Nearly one hundred and seventy thousand patients havehad access to care in fifteen Ambulatory Treatment Centers (ATCs). For the ten yearsanniversary of the FRC’s AIDS programs, we present the results of the evaluation of threeATCs in Africa. These results which show a low mortality rate in the patients onantiretroviral therapy and a very low rate of second line patients (1.5%) confirm theefficiency of the management of people living with HIV in the ATCs and generally of theAIDS programs of the FRC. However, the mortality remains high in patients who have aCD4+ cell count of less than 50/mm3 when antiretrovirals (ARVs) initiation. Services andcare dispensed in the ATCs and particularly the antiretroviral therapy have demonstratedtheir feasibility and efficiency. In ten years, the challenge of the management of HIV haschanged. Today, there is a need to integrate additional actions in the area of the supply ofprimary healthcare, of training and of motivation of the care providers. In addition, thefollow-up/evaluation of the patient management programs remains useful to determinethe impact and long-term efficacy of ARVs in resource-limited countries