Late presentation to HIV/AIDS testing, treatment or continued care: clarifying the use of CD4 evaluation in the consensus definition

Objectives Late presentation to HIV/AIDS services compromises treatment outcomes and misses opportunities for biomedical and behavioral prevention. There has been significant heterogeneity in how the term “late presentation” (LP) has been used in the literature. In 2011, a consensus definition was reached using CD4 counts to define and measure late presenters and while it is useful for clinical care, the consensus definition has several important limitations that we discuss in this article.