Data accessibility as a barriers towards achieving the UNAIDS 90-90-90 goals in the HIV cascade of care among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

KOGAN G; SQUIQUERA L; IANNANTOUNO MV; MORANDO N; LAUFER N; VILA M; MARONE R; OCHOA C; PANDO MA

Paris

Conferencia; 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2017); 2017

Background: The HIV cascade of care has become an important toolfor central assessment of treatment as prevention (TasP) strategy to stop the HIVepidemic. This study presents data of the HIV cascade among men who have sexwith men (MSM) diagnosed with HIV in the main testing center for MSM in BuenosAires, Argentina. Methods: Recruitment was done by spontaneousdemand of rapid HIV test (RHT), available for free in the testing center (NexoNGO) from April-2014 to March-2015. HIV diagnosis was performed withfinger-stick samples (Alere Determine HIV-1/2) after signing an informedconsent. During the post-test interview, confirmatory/complementary studies (Ag/AbELISA, HIV viral load and CD4T cell count) were offered toRHT-reactive-individuals. A blood sample was withdrawn by venipuncture fromthose who accepted and delivery of results was planned at 10 days. AllRHT-reactive individuals were contacted (via email and/or mobile phone) oneyear after HIV diagnosis in order to collect information about retention incare, HAART and viral suppression. Results: 1496 MSM were tested atNexo reaching an HIV prevalence of 12.5%. Among the RHT-reactive individuals,83.4% (156/187) accepted to do confirmatory/complementary studies and 82.8% ofthem picked the results up, received counseling and were linked to care. Atotal of 62.0% had less than 500 CD4T cell/ml. At one year, 55.1% (103/187) couldbe contacted, 92.2% (95/103) were on HAART, 55.8% (53/95) remembered their lastVL, and 83% (44/53) were virologically suppressed. The individuals that couldnot be contacted did not answer neither emails nor cell phone calls and messages.Conclusions: Our data reveals that the first steps in the engagement in care weresuccessful with more than 80% of the individuals linked to care through theconfirmation of reactive RHT, the picking up of the results and the visits to thephysician. Among those whose data were obtained, high frequency of retention incare, HAART and virologically suppression was observed. However, efforts shouldbe concentrated on increasing strategies to collect data in countries, likeArgentina, where follow up information is not centralized in national databases due to the coexistence of different health care systems.