Monitoring HIV Care in South Africa Using a Laboratory Monitoring Database
Matthew Fox, DSc BU School of Public Health
South Africa has the largest HIV treatment program in the world with over 4.5 million people on antiretroviral therapy. The country has made tremendous progress towards the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals of getting 73% of those with HIV to be on treatment and to have an undetectable viral load, but monitoring progress towards that goal is hampered by the lack of a national monitoring database. In this talk, I will preview an approach to using probabilistic record linkage to turn a national laboratory database into a national HIV monitoring database, capable of describing trends in HIV care across South Africa. I will present preliminary results on the impact of various policy changes in South Africa and progress towards national and international targets.