Linkage to care to reduce the gap in HIV treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS in Peru: 2016-2019 experience

Introduction: Time from identification as people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to a confirmatory test followed by antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is critical to any HIV prevention and control program. Gaps persist in identifying and linking PLWHA with health system, making it necessary to continue looking for strategies to close this breach. Material and methods: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been working on linking recently diagnosed HIV patients in Peru, and this paper summarized the experiences and results obtained from our linkage to care program between 2016 and 2019. Methods utilized for linkage to care include telephone communication, accompaniment to health service, social support, multidisciplinary team assessment, and initiation of ART when indicated. Results: During 2014-2019 we identified 9,991 PLWHA, in which 8,491 (84.98%) had an initial contact (initial linkage to care), and 6,899 (69.05%) received highly active antiretroviral therapy (effective link to care). We observed a consecutive increase in attention, as in the number of effective linkages, growing from 566 (80.17%) in 2016 to 3,237 (85.39%) in 2019. Among genders, males had the higher ratios of effective linkage to care (85.69%), while transgender women had the lower (79.14%). Conclusions: We observed that linkage to care is a strategy that provides more opportunities for treatment of PLWHA, and it is helpful in low-income countries.