Pediatric HIV care and treatment services in Tanzania: implications for survival

Background Improving child survival for HIV-infected children remains an important health agenda. We present progress regarding care and treatment services to HIV infected children in Tanzania. Methods The National AIDS Control Programme Care and Treatment (CTC 2) database was used to obtain information of all children aged 0-14yearsenrolled in the HIV Care and Treatment Program between January 2011 and December 2014. We assessed eligibility for ART, time from enrolment to ART initiation, nutritional status, and mortality using Kaplan-Meier methods. Results A total of 29,531 (14,304 boys and 15,227 girls) ART-naive children aged 0–14 years were enrolled during the period, approximately 6700 to 8000 children per year. The male to female ratio was 48:50. At enrolment 72% were eligible for ART, 2–3% of children were positive for TB, and 2–4% were severely malnourished. Between 2011 and 2014, 2368 (8%) died, 9243 (31%) were Lost to Follow-up and 17,920 (61%) were on care or ART. The probability of death was 31% (95% CI 26–35), 43% (40–47), 52% (49–55) and 61% (58–64) by 1,2, 5 and 10 years of age, respectively. The hazard of death was greatest at very young ages (