Published 18 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2662
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:a2662

Editorials

Adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy in complex emergency settings

Can be high, with contingency plans and dedicated resources

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 2006, about 1.8 million people living with HIV had been affected by conflict, disaster, or displacement.1 People living within these often transient and volatile settings are vulnerable to violence, poverty, and natural disaster, all of which make consistent management of HIV a challenge. In the linked prospective cohort study (doi:), Kiboneka and colleagues describe their experiences in providing combination antiretroviral therapy to a large cohort of HIV infected patients from a camp for internally displaced people in northern Uganda.2 The study shows how some of the barriers to treating people infected with HIV in conflict settings can be overcome.

Before the initial scale up of combination antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa, policy makers from industrialised countries expressed concerns and scepticism about the feasibility of providing this treatment in resource poor settings. Factors associated with poverty, including lack of education and access to care, were thought to be insurmountable barriers . . . [Full text of this article]

Shevin T Jacob, infectious diseases fellow1, George Abongomera, head2

1 Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Roosevelt Virology Clinic, Seattle, WA 98105-6920, USA, 2 JCRC Gulu Regional Centre of Excellence, Joint Clinical Research Centre, PO Box 10005, Kampala, Uganda

sjacob@post.harvard.edu


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Relevant Article

Combination antiretroviral therapy in population affected by conflict: outcomes from large cohort in northern Uganda
Andrew Kiboneka, Ricky Jones Nyatia, Christine Nabiryo, Aranka Anema, Curtis L Cooper, Kimberly Ann Fernandes, Julio S G Montaner, and Edward J Mills
BMJ 2009 338: b201. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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