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Poor tracking means patients lose out
Inadequate patient tracking at one of South Africa's largest antiretroviral (ARV) distribution sites, has led to many patients disappearing from the clinic before treatment starts, a new report has found.
The report by the Reproductive Health & HIV Research Unit (RHRU) of the University of the Witwatersrand, based on a 2006 review of patient files at the Tshepong Wellness Clinic, about 120km southwest of Johannesburg, shows that a standard percentage - about 14 percent - stop taking treatment, but more than 20 percent of patients never get to the treatment stage.
An initial CD4 count (measuring the strength of the immune system) for each patient - those who began treatment as well as those who did not - was an average of 95. This led researchers to question why patients with a CD4 count of below 200, who clearly qualified for free treatment, did not start receiving it.
