HIV Diagnosed Adolescents Should Get in Touch with Care Providers, The Sooner The Better

As more and more American adolescents are tested with HIV, institutions tasked with providing care and treatment are urging parents and adolescents themselves to immediately get in touch with HIV care network. This, they said, will increase the adolescents' chances of remaining in care for the long term.

In the United States, people aged between 12 and 24 years have lower rates of engagement in HIV care compared to adults. Because of this, only six per cent of all adolescents living with HIV have an undetectable viral load compared to approximately a third of adults. According to reports, 2,100 young people and adolescents are infected with HIV every day. In 2013, four million people aged 15-24 were living with HIV. Almost 30 percent of them were under the age of 19.

Sadly, only 62 per cent of adolescents recently diagnosed with HIV have been found to connect with care providers within 22 weeks of referral following their diagnosis. This was part of findings of a study that made use of data collected from 15 Adolescent Medicine Trials Network Clinic sites in 13 cities across the United States and Puerto Rico.

These sites implement the SMILE (Strategic Multi-site Initiative for Linkage and Engagement in HIV-related Care) program which aims to increase adolescent engagement in HIV care. It SMILE uses intensive case management to find newly diagnosed adolescents, assess individual barriers to linkage to care and achieve personalized referral to specialist care services.

It was found in the study (Philbin MM et al. HIV testing, care referral, and linkage to care intervals affect time to engagement in care for newly diagnosed HIV-infected adolescents in 15 Adolescent Medicine Clinics in the United States. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr, 72: 222-29, 2016.) that the sooner an adolescent enters a program for HIV care, the greater the chances that they remain in the program.

During 32 months, 1799 newly diagnosed adolescents were referred to the SMILE program. Of these, 70% were linked to care and 89% of these individuals were engaged in care. Therefore, only 62% of adolescents were linked and engaged with care.