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To the Editor: Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has been shown to substantially decrease mortality among patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).¹ However, treatment guidelines have recently supported initiating HAART later in the course of HIV infection. This requires that monitoring of CD4 cell counts be conducted at the time of HIV diagnosis and every 3 months thereafter to ensure treatment is initiated before patients become vulnerable to opportunistic infections.^1-2 This may require interventions for populations who may be at risk of poor access to health care.³ We evaluated rates of CD4 cell count monitoring among users of injection drugs having access to free HIV/AIDS care and antiretroviral therapy.⁴

Methods

In British Columbia, all HIV-positive persons are eligible for HAART free of charge through a province-wide drug treatment program. The Barriers to Access to Antiretroviral Therapy cohort of users of injection drugs in Vancouver has been described previously.⁴ Participants provided . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Evan Wood, PhD
ewood@hivnet.ubc.ca
Department of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Vancouver

Robert S. Hogg, PhD
Department of Health Care and Epidemiology
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia

Simon Bonner, MSc; Thomas Kerr, PhD; Kathy Li, MSc
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St Paul's Hospital
Vancouver

Anita Palepu, MD, FRCPC; Silvia Guillemi, MD, FRCPC
Department of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia

Martin T. Schechter, MD, PhD
Department of Health Care and Epidemiology

Julio S. G. Montaner, MD, FRCPC
Department of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Longitudinal community plasma HIV-1 RNA concentrations and incidence of HIV-1 among injecting drug users: prospective cohort study
Wood et al.
BMJ 2009;338:b1649-b1649.
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