Where have we come from and where are we going? The paediatric HIV programme in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 2004 to 2018: A retrospective analysis of programme trends

Background. The paediatric HIV treatment programme in South Africa (SA) has grown since its inception in 2004. Despite this impressive scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in children, the proportion of children started on ART and retained in care remains unacceptably low, with only 47% of the 340 000 HIV-positive children in SA on ART in 2020. Johannesburg is one of the districts in SA with the largest number of children living with HIV who are not on ART, and is a priority district for paediatric case finding and retention.Objectives: To describe the dynamics of the paediatric HIV programme in Johannesburg, SA.Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on patient-level HIV treatment data from TIER.Net, the nationally mandated HIV/ART database. Children aged