Cohort profile: The International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) in sub-Saharan Africa, 2012-2019

Purpose: The objectives of the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) are to (i) evaluate the delivery of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children, adolescents and adults in sub-Saharan Africa, (ii) to describe ART regimen effectiveness, durability and tolerability, (iii) to examine HIV-related comorbidities and co-infections, and (iv) to examine the pregnancy- and HIV-related outcomes of women on ART and their infants exposed to HIV or antiretroviral therapy in utero or via breastmilk. Participants: IeDEA is organized in four regions (Central, East, Southern and West Africa), with 240 treatment and care sites, six data centres at African, European and US universities, and almost 1.4 million children, adolescents and adult people living with HIV (PLWHIV) enrolled. Findings to date: The data include socio-demographic characteristics, clinical outcomes, opportunistic events, treatment regimens, clinic visits and laboratory measurements. They have been used to analyse outcomes in people living with HIV-1 or HIV-2 who initiate ART, including determinants of mortality, of switching to second-line and third-line ART, drug resistance, loss to follow-up and the immunological and virological response to different ART regimens. Programme-level estimates of mortality have been corrected for loss to follow-up. We examined the impact of co-infection with hepatitis B and C, and the epidemiology of different cancers and of (multi-drug resistant) tuberculosis, renal disease and of mental illness. The adoption of 9Treat All9, making ART available to all PLWHIV regardless of CD4+ cell count or clinical stage was another important research topic. Future plans: IeDEA has formulated several research priorities for the 9Treat All9 era in sub-Saharan Africa. It recently obtained funding to set up sentinel sites where additional data are prospectively collected on cardiometabolic risks factors as well as mental health and liver diseases, and is planning to create a drug resistance database.