Adhering to Antiretroviral Therapies

Abstract

In 1999, the AIDS program conducted a survey of more than 1,000 patients in Sao Paulo [Brazil]. It found that 69 percent achieved 80 percent adherence, which means they took their medicine properly 80 percent of the time. According to Margaret Chesney, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco who studies behavioral factors in AIDS treatment, this rate is not sufficient to control the virus - which can kill even people who take their medicine faithfully - but it is no different from adherence rates in the United States. A study in San Diego showed that 72 percent of patients took their medicine 80 percent of the time.