Fwd: [RectalMicro IRMA] Rapid Testing Sharply Cuts HIV Patient Dropout Rate
Rapid Testing Sharply Cuts HIV Patient Dropout Rate By: Talea Miller HIV clinic in Mozambique. Photo by Talea Miller. Every time an HIV clinic tells a patient to come back for more testing or for laboratory results there is a risk the patient will never return. This happens so frequently in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 50 percent of HIV-positive patients drop out of programs before starting treatment, it has it's own terminology: lost to follow-up. With the use of new rapid test kits -- which measure immune system health without having to send samples off site to laboratories and waiting for results -- researchers in Mozambique nearly doubled treatment enrollment and cut the number of patients lost almost in half. Total patient drop out rates before beginning treatment fell from 64 percent to 33 percent, according to results published this week on the La