What is linkage to care?

Linkage to care is a crucial early step in successful HIV treatment and is typically defined as the completion of a first medical clinic visit after HIV diagnosis. Linkage to care plays a key role in the HIV care continuum—it is a necessary precursor to antiretroviral therapy initiation and viral suppression.

How can I improve my linkage?

Strategies To Improve Linkage To Care

1. Health system interventions. Task shifting- This includes sharing and shifting of HIV service provisions tasks among professional health workers and lay providers.
2. Patient convenience and accessibility.
3. Behavior interventions and peer support.
4. Use of incentives.

What is retention in care?

Retention in care has variously been defined as “a spectrum of continuum of care packages starting from diagnosis of HIV infection till lifelong services” [6], “being alive and on ART or being transferred out to other health facilities to continue treatment” [7], and “as patients known to be alive and receiving highly …

How can care retention be improved?

1. Set up and maintain simple, standardized monitoring systems.
2. Reliably ascertain true treatment outcomes.
3. Reduce death rates.
4. Ensure uninterrupted ART drug supplies.
5. Use simple, non-toxic, and free ART regimens.
6. Decentralize ART clinics and reduce frequency of visits for stable patients.
7. Reduce indirect patient costs.

What linkage means?

linkage Add to list Share. Linkage means “connection”––the act of linking or the fact of being linked––specifically the kind of connection where one thing follows the other, as if in a chain.

What does antiretroviral therapy art do?

Antiretroviral therapy works by preventing viral replication in the body. This allows the body’s immune system to recover. ART is a combination of drugs that act on the virus in different ways at different stages in its life cycle. Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot multiply on their own.

What is the difference between retention and adherence?

Retention should not however be confused with adherence (number of sessions attended divided by number of sessions prescribed), since, from a public health perspective, it is more important to maintain participation in the program than to keep participants in a study.

What is retention in ART?

We defined retention in care as a patient who is still on ART (assessed at intervals longer than six months post-initiation) and has not died, transferred out, stopped treatment or been lost-to follow-up (LTFU).

What is the difference between ARV and art?

HIV drugs are called antiretrovirals (ARVs) because HIV is a type of virus called a retrovirus. ART generally includes three active drugs but a few new options only use two drugs. Some pills contain more than one drug and some pills contain a complete combination (of 2, 3 or 4 drugs).

What are the main goals of linkage to care?

Linkage to Care: Main Goals Linkage to care is a crucial early step in successful HIV treatment and is typically defined as the completion of a first medical clinic visit after HIV diagnosis. Linkage to care plays a key role in the HIV care continuum—it is a necessary precursor to antiretroviral therapy initiation and viral suppression.

How does linkage case management ( LCM ) work?

Linkage Case Management (LCM) is a time-limited, targeted approach to case management that focuses on identifying and linking PLWH to HIV medical care through the provision of brief interventions that increase access to, and readiness to engage in, primary HIV medical care .

How does linkage to care work in HIV treatment?

Linkage to care is a crucial early step in successful HIV treatment and is typically defined as the completion of a first medical clinic visit after an HIV diagnosis. Linkage to care plays a crucial role in the HIV care continuum because it is a necessary precursor to retention in care, antiretroviral therapy initiation, and viral suppression.

How long does it take for linkage to care to occur?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors linkage to care after HIV diagnosis for two timeframes—within 1 month (30 days) and within 3 months (90 days). The CDC surveillance data are based on documentation of an HIV RNA level (viral load) or CD4 cell count within 1 month or 3 months of diagnosis as evidence for linkage to care.