Antiretroviral therapy in the Malawi police force: access to therapy and treatment outcomes.

A national survey was carried out in all the 103 public sector and 38 private sector facilities in Malawi providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) to determine uptake of ART and subsequent treatment outcomes in police force personnel. All patients registered for ART and their subsequent treatment outcomes were censored on December 31st 2006. There were 85168 patients started on ART in both public and private sectors, of whom 463 (0.6%) were police force personnel. Of police force personnel starting ART, 17% were in WHO clinical stage 1 or 2 with a CD4-lymphocyte count of < or = 250 cells/microL and 83% were in stage 3 or 4. Treatment outcomes of police force personnel by the end of December 2006 were 302 (65%) alive and on ART at their registration facility, 59 (13%) dead, 30 (7%) lost to follow-up, 1 stopped treatment and 71 (15%) transferred to another facility. Their probability of being alive on ART at 6-, 12- and 18-months was 83.2%, 78.6% and 76.7% respectively. There has been a good access of police force personnel to ART since national scale up commenced with good treatment outcomes, and this should serve as an example for other police forces in the region.