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Introduction: Time from identification as people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to a confirmatory test followed by antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is critical to any HIV prevention and control program. Gaps persist in identifying and linking PLWHA with health system, making it necessary to continue looking for strategies to close this breach.Material and methods: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been working on linking recently diagnosed HIV patients in Peru, and this paper summarized the experiences and results obtained from our linkage to care program between 2016 and 2019. Methods utilized for linkage to care include telephone communication, accompaniment to health service, social support, multidisciplinary team assessment, and initiation of ART when indicated. Results:During 2014-2019 we identified 9,991 PLWHA, in which 8,491 (84.98%) had an initial contact (initial linkage to care), and 6,899 (69.05%) received highly active antiretroviral therapy (effective link to care). We observed a consecutive increase in attention, as in the number of effective linkages, growing from 566 (80.17%) in 2016 to 3,237 (85.39%) in 2019. Among genders, males had the higher ratios of effective linkage to care (85.69%), while transgender women had the lower (79.14%). Conclusions:We observed that linkage to care is a strategy that provides more opportunities for treatment of PLWHA, and it is helpful in low-income countries.

Introduction: Discordant immuno-viral response, defined as a failure in increasing more than 100 CD4+ cells/μl T lymphocytes with an undetectable viral load at one year after initiation of a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), is associated with an increase in mortality in people living with HIV (PLWH). This study explored a cohort of HIV-positive patients in a Peruvian hospital to determine factors associated with discordant immuno-viral response. Material and methods:A retrospective, analytical, cross-sectional single-site study was conducted, including PLWH receiving HAART with regular follow-up visits. In total, 310 PLWH, out of which 47 with a discordant response (DIR) and 263 with concordant immune response (CIR) fulfilled inclusion criteria for the study.Results: Main characteristics of our population were: age of onset of HAART around 35 years, male and heterosexual. Moreover, age over 65 years, from different hospital, co-infection, opportunistic infections, and baseline CD4+ > 250 cells/μl were significantly associated with DIR. Multivariate regression analysis showed basal CD4+ > 250 cells/μl and opportunistic infections associated with DIR. Conclusions:In our cohort, factors associated with the development of DIR are baseline CD4+ over 250 cells/μl and opportunistic infections.