Antiretroviral therapy coverage among people with advanced HIV infections (percentage)
Rationale for use
As the HIV epidemic matures, increasing numbers of people are reaching advanced stages of HIV infection. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been shown to reduce mortality among those infected and efforts are being made to make it more affordable even in less developed countries. This indicator assesses the progress in providing ART to all people with advanced HIV infection.
Definition
The percentage of adults and children with advanced HIV infection currently receiving ART according to a nationally approved treatment protocol (or WHO/UNAIDS standards) among the estimated number of people with advanced HIV infection.
Data sources
Health facility reports compiling data from facility registers, or reports from drug supply management systems, are used to obtain the number of people on ART, i.e. drugs received for the last month of the reporting period. External validation of country reported figures is carried out with data from pharmaceutical industry (if available).
Methods of estimation
The denominator of the coverage estimate is obtained from models that also generate the HIV prevalence, incidence and mortality estimates. The number of adults with advanced HIV infection who need to start treatment is estimated as the number with advanced HIV infection needing treatment in the current year, multiplied by two (based on the assumption that adults with advanced HIV infection who need ART would die of AIDS in about three years if not given ART).
The total number of adults needing ART is calculated by adding the number of adults who need to start ART to the number treated in the previous year and who have survived to the current year.
Disaggregation
By sex, age (children/adults), location (urban/rural, major regions/provinces) and socioeconomic characteristics (e.g. education level, wealth quintile).
References
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Progress on global access to HIV antitretroviral therapy. A report on "3 by 5" and beyond, March 2006.
pdf, 2.86Mb
Geneva, World Health Organization, 2006 -
Towards universal access by 2010: how WHO is working with countries to scale-up HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
pdf, 597kb
Geneva, World Health Organization, 2006 -
Monitoring the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. Guidelines on construction of core indicators. 2008 reporting.
Geneva, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 2007
Comments
The accuracy of the number of people reported to be on ART needs to be improved, as programme monitoring systems are still being developed.
Although this indicator allows trends to be monitored over time, it does not attempt to distinguish among the different types of regimen available, nor does it measure the cost, quality or effectiveness of such treatment.
Antiretroviral drugs for post-exposure prophylaxis are not included in this indicator.