Identifying HIV care continuum gaps with verbal autopsy

Abstract

UNAIDS estimates that there are over 36 million people infected with HIV globally, with disproportionate burdens in eastern and southern Africa where major treatment programmes have been introduced.1,2 Better understanding of the causes of HIV-related mortality is needed to fill major knowledge gaps and to enable improvement of the impact of HIV treatment programmes. Most deaths (including AIDS-related ones) in low-income and middle-income countries occur at home and without medical attention at the time of death.