An estimated forty million people carry the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and five million more become newly infected annually. In recent years, many HIV-infected patients in wealthy nations have enjoyed significantly longer, good-quality lives as a result of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, most infected individuals live in the poorest regions of the world, where ART is virtually nonexistent. The consequent death toll in these regions—especially sub-Saharan Africa—is begetting economic and social collapse.
To inform the multiple efforts underway to deploy antiretroviral drugs in resource-poor settings, the Institute of Medicine committee was asked to conduct an independent review and assessment of rapid scale-up ART programs. It was also asked to identify the components of effective implementation programs.
At the heart of the committee's report lie five imperatives:
- Immediately introduce and scale up ART programs in resource-poor settings.
- Devise strategies to ensure high levels of patient adherence to complicated treatment regimens.
- Rapidly address human-resource shortages to avoid the failure of program implementation.
- Continuously monitor and evaluate the programs to form the most effective guidelines and treatment regimens for each population.
- Prepare to sustain ART for decades.
- Cover
- Front Matter
- Executive Summary
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Opportunities and Challenges
- 3 Lessons Learned
- 4 Principles of Scale-Up
- 5 Managing Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy
- 6 The Path Forward
- Appendix A: Information Gathering Workshop Agenda
- Appendix B: Primer on Humanimmunodeficiency Virus, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and Antiretroviral Therapy
- Appendix C: Scaling Up Antiretroviral Therapy in Resource-Limited Settings: Treatment Guidelines for a Public Health Approach
- Appendix D: Human Ethical Issues Arising in ARV Scale-Up in Resource Constrained Settings
- Appendix E: Human Resource Requirements for Scaling Up Antiretroviral Therapy in Low-Resource Countries
- Appendix F: Glossary and Acronyms
- Appendix G: Committee and Staff Biographies