Background:  Since 1996, the introduction of ART has substantially improved the prognosis of HIV-infected patients who have access to these drugs. In recent years, ART has been scaled-up in resource-limited countries in Africa and Asia, where the majority of people with HIV/AIDS live. The WHO estimates that, as of June 2006, an estimated 1.65 million were receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries, representing around 24% of the estimated 6.8 million people in need of treatment. We wanted to describe the characteristics of patients starting ART in resource-limited and industrialized settings and compare outcomes of ART, including virologic and immunologic response, treatment change, and clinical endpoints.

Methods:  Data from treatment programs of adults and children, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, which are part of the ART in Lower Income Countries collaboration (ART-LINC) of the International epidemiological Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) initiative will be analyzed, including, for example, the Khayelitsha and Gugulethu programs in 2 townships in South Africa, and the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) program in Kenya.

Results:  Results will be compared with data from collaborative studies from North America and Europe, including the ART Cohort Collaboration (ART-CC) and the European Collaborative study.

Conclusions:  This presentation will describe and compare relevant outcomes of ART in resource-limited and industrialized settings, and discuss pertinent issues, including, for example, the cost of starting treatment late.