This year’s UNAIDS Global AIDS report- “Miles to go” noted that the number of AIDS-related deaths was lowest this century, with fewer than 1 million people dying each year from AIDS-related illnesses. This is in part a result of sustained access to antiretroviral therapy which has seen a record 21.7 million people enroll on treatment. In order to sustain these significant gains, the report calls for scale up of access to treatment by global institutions working towards an AIDS-free world.

The Infectious Diseases Institute, Makerere University is one such institution in this laudable initiative whose efforts towards achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 agenda was highlighted in this year’s report. IDI’s research on the linkages between social economic status and antiretroviral therapy which was published in the PLOS ONE journal is cited under the Poverty and Inequality section. Reference is made to the close link between socioeconomic status and health where people with lower incomes are more likely to have less favorable health outcomes, including higher prevalence of disease and reduced life expectancy. The report notes that “A study examining socioeconomic status and long-term outcomes for people receiving antiretroviral therapy in Kampala, Uganda, found no significant association between household income and incidence of mortality or virologic failure. Formal education levels also were not related to 10-year incidence of mortality or virologic failure among patients. Importantly, the source of the data was a clinic that provided routine support to all patients, including counselling, telephone calls to schedule visits or follow-up on missed visits, one on-one consultations, and financial support for transport. Quality services and proper support seemed to negate the effect of the socioeconomic disparities among patients.” Click here to read more.

Authors of the manuscript are Andrew G. Flynn, Godwin Anguzu, Frank Mubiru, Agnes N. Kiragga, Moses Kamya, David B. Meya, David R. Boulware, Andrew Kambugu, Barbara C. Castelnuovo. Socioeconomic position and ten-year survival and virologic outcomes in a Ugandan HIV cohort receiving antiretroviral therapy. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(12):e0189055