Transition of HIV-infected Youths from Paediatric to Adult Care, a Swedish Single-centre Experience

Background: Transition of HIV-infected adolescents from paediatric care to adult care is vulnerable and entails a risk of treatment failure. Therefore, a Transitional Outpatient Clinic for HIV-infected adolescents and young adults was started in 2008. The aims were to describe the transition process and treatment results in a Swedish cohort of adolescents with HIV.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional study of the adolescent and young adults with HIV at the clinic was performed in October 2013 and a 2-year follow-up at the end of 2015.

Results: The 34 patients in care in October 2013 were a median of 19 years, 50% were female. Thirty-one out of 34 (91%) were perinatally infected. In 2013, 88% were on antiretroviral treatment (ART), for a median duration of 9 years, 74% were on a protease inhibitor-based regimen. Twenty-nine patients were followed-up at the end of 2015. Twenty-three were transferred to the Infectious Disease Clinic and the median age for transition was 19 years. At the end of 2015, 90% were treated with ART and 61% had an integrase inhibitor-based treatment. Of those treated with ART for more than 6 months, 90% (2013) and 96% (2015) had a viral load < 50 HIV RNA copies/mL, despite resistance problems and complicating social factors. These figures were higher than reported in other studies and similar to the treatment results in the adult HIV population in Sweden.

Conclusions: The present study showed that it is possible to achieve good treatment results in adolescents with HIV.