title: Who is accessing antiretroviral therapy during national scale-up in Malawi?
abstract: Malawi is scaling-up provision of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the public sector. In the fourth quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005, 3261 and 4530 new patients, respectively, were started on ART. Of these patients, approximately 40% were male and 95% were adults aged > or =13 years. The age group data show that women who accessed ART were in general 10 years younger than men. Between 84% and 90% of patients were started on ART because of being clinically assessed as being in WHO stages III or IV, with the remainder started on ART owing to a low CD4 lymphocyte count. The number of tuberculosis (TB) patients started on ART was 351 (11% of ART patients) in the fourth quarter of 2004 and 702 (15% of ART patients, and 16% of registered TB patients) in the first quarter of 2005. Twenty-nine pregnant women were referred to ART from prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes in the first quarter of 2005. Between 56% and 62% of patients were subsistence farmers, housewives or in business. Steady progress is being made with national scale-up, although more attention needs to be directed to children, pregnant women and patients with TB to improve their access to ART.
authors.affiliation: Clinical HIV Unit, Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 30377, Lilongwe, Malawi.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Makombe
authors.forename: Edwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Libamba
authors.forename: Eustice
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mhango
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: de Ascurra Teck
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aberle-Grasse
authors.forename: Mindy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hochgesang
authors.forename: Erik J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Schouten
authors.forename: Anthony D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Harries
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008295:Malawi; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*