Implementation and Operational Research: Impact of Nurse-targeted Care on Hiv Outcomes Among Immunocompromised Persons

Introduction: Improving HIV outcomes among severely immunocompromised HIV-infected persons who have increased morbidity and mortality remains an important issue in sub-Saharan Africa. We sought to evaluate the impact of targeted clinic-based nurse care on antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and retention among severely immunocompromised HIV-infected persons. Methods: The study included ART-naive patients with CD4 counts Results: The study included 258 patients in the routine care cohort and 593 in the nurse counselor cohort. The proportion of patients who initiated ART increased from 190 (73.6%) in the routine care cohort to 506 (85.3%) in the nurse counselor cohort (P Conclusions: Implementation of targeted nurse-led care of severely immunocompromised HIV-infected patients in public outpatient health care facilities resulted in decreased time to ART initiation and increased retention.