To date most estimates of retention in the literature assume that all patients who become lost-to-follow-up (i.e., have unknown outcomes) are not retained in care. This is tantamount to assuming that retention-in-clinic is equivalent to retention in care which is an unwarranted assumption in the setting of HIV Care and Treatment program scale-up and decentralization. Retention in care can only be estimated by tracking patients who are lost-to-follow-up and obtaining updated information about their access to ART [7].

Below we describe the BetterInfo measures and activities that were used for tracking LTFU patients. See Annex 7: SOP Patient Tracking.