HIV Experts in USA Recommend Shifting HIV Care To Primary Care Doctors
Wow! That's controversial. What do you think? From the AIDS Beacon May 4, 2011 Print
“If specialty care is less needed than it used to be for HIV-infected patients, it turns out that primary care is more needed. Owing to the advances in HIV treatment, our patients are no longer dying: they are aging!” wrote Dr. Katz, director of the Los Angeles Department of Health Services.
Dr. Katz argued in the editorial that HIV is now largely a chronic disease with relatively routine care that could be provided by primary care physicians, as is the case with diabetes.
Most people with HIV now begin treatment with Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir), a once-daily pill containing three antiretrovirals that has simplified HIV treatment. In addition, viral load testing – which measures the amount of HIV in the blood and allows physicians to measure how effective HV treatment is – has become fairly routine.
Dr. Katz argued that with the newer drugs and monitoring abilities, patients with effectively suppressed viruses are unlikely to develop the opportunistic diseases that made HIV treatment so difficult in the 1980s and 1990s.
“The most common reason for a patient’s condition not being fully suppressed while receiving one of the conventional regimens is non-adherence, a primary care problem if ever there was one,” wrote Dr. Katz.
“The small percentage of patients who do not obtain a good response to a conventional regimen despite being adherent will need referral for specialty care,” he added.
Instead, the primary challenges faced by people with HIV are increasingly caused by other conditions, such as heart disease, bone loss, and other problems – issues which, according to Dr. Katz, are best dealt with by a primary care physician.
Primary Care Physicians May Fill In Gaps Left By Dwindling Numbers Of HIV Specialists
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, published last month, also recommended shifting more HIV care to primary care doctors, stating that decreasing numbers of HIV specialists, along with a growing HIV-positive population, are placing strains on the current United States healthcare system.
In addition, people with HIV are increasingly moving from urban centers to more rural areas where HIV-care providers are especially scarce.
The authors recommended that primary care physicians receive better training in caring for people with HIV and that medical students receive greater exposure to outpatient HIV care throughout school and post-graduate training.
Kathryn Hafford, a registered nurse and director of the Division of Disease Prevention of Virginia’s Department of Health, said in correspondence with the AIDS Beacon that fewer medical students are choosing to specialize in HIV care.
“The health care system is strained and does not have enough qualified providers to increase HIV testing and ensure availability of medical care. Older HIV physicians are leaving the field faster than new physicians are entering,” said Hafford, who was not involved with the report. “Physicians are often not choosing infectious diseases because they can make substantially more money in other specialties,” she added.
She agreed with the IOM that more training for primary care physicians is needed. “Providing increased awareness of HIV in curricula, as well as encouraging students to pursue primary care and HIV specialization could make a significant difference in the availability and quality of care,” she said.
“Faculty need to make sure students consider HIV when working with patients with other health issues because less media publicity, improved treatment regimens, and focus on HIV in developing countries have resulted in some people thinking HIV is no longer a problem in the U.S.,” she added.
- Tags: 2011 HIV treatment guidelines, AIDS, AIDS Beacon, HIV, HIV and aging ageing, HIV specialists, HIV standard of care, HIV+ HIV-positive, PositiveLite_com
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário