Challenges in HIV Management and Therapy

Across the world there are 38 million people living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). While numbers are on the decline, 1.7 million people acquired the HIV virus in 2019.

Treating HIV comes with several challenges and barriers, including a high cost of treatment, access to care, retention in care and transition from inpatient to outpatient care.

Contagion recently sat down with Melissa Badowski, PharmD, MPH, a clinical associate professor in the department of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago to discuss the issue of challenges in HIV management

Badowski presented on the topic at the 23rd Annual Making a Difference in Infectious Disease Meeting 2021 virtual sessions.

“Were very stringent with our medical appointments. If you miss it by 10 or 15 minutes, a lot of patients will get turned away,” Badowski said. “Where in HIV care, it’s just the opposite. We try to remove any barriers; we try to meet the patient where they’re at.”

Patients face many barriers, from the ability to get their medication to being stigmatized from having HIV.

“HIV has been around for a long time, but I still think of it as being stigmatized,” Badowski said. “If we can just reduce the ‘Oh, this is just an infectious disease.’ I think that would help a lot of our patients with reducing that stigma.”