{"doi":"10.4314/ahs.v20i1.18","title":"High viral suppression and low attrition in healthy HIV-infected patients initiated on ART with CD4 above 500 cells/μL in a program setting in Uganda","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all HIV-infected patients at all CD4 counts. However, there are concerns that asymptomatic patients may have poorer viral suppression and high attrition. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine attrition and viral suppression among healthy HIV-infected patients initiated on ART in program settings. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled ART-experienced patients attending two PEPFAR-supported, high-volume clinics in Kampala, Uganda. Eligible patients were >18 years and had completed at least six months on ART. Participants were interviewed on socio-demographics, ART history and plasma viral load (VL) determined using Abbott Real-time. Predictors of viral suppression (<75 copies/ml) were determined using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Overall, 267 participants were screened, 228 were eligible and 203 (89%) retained in care (visit within 90 days). Of the 203 participants, 115 (56.7%) were key-populations. Viral suppression was achieved in 173 patients (85%; 95% CI, 80.3%-90.1%). The factors associated with viral suppression were prior VL tests (AOR 6.98; p-value <0.001) and receiving care from a general clinic (AOR 5.41; p=0.009). CONCLUSION: Asymptomatic patients initiated on ART with high baseline CD4 counts, achieve high viral suppression with low risk of attrition. VL monitoring and clinic type are associated with viral suppression.","journal":"African Health Sciences","year":2020,"id":81890,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":13,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9611,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":328477,"name":"Fred C. Semitala","orcid":"0000-0002-0624-7640","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":423456,"name":"J. Katende","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":423457,"name":"Alex Bakenga","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":423458,"name":"Irene Arinaitwe","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":422759,"name":"Peter Kyambadde","orcid":"0000-0002-9606-218X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":422760,"name":"Patrick Musinguzi","orcid":"0000-0003-0992-558X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":363348,"name":"Irene Andia Biraro","orcid":"0000-0002-8303-6046","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361586,"name":"Pauline Byakika‐Kibwika","orcid":"0000-0003-0757-1968","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":242453,"name":"Moses R. Kamya","orcid":"0000-0001-9106-4234","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":422758,"name":"Dathan M. Byonanebye","orcid":"0000-0001-9862-4724","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":24,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:52:58.921847Z","pmid":"33402901","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}