Zitko P, Hojman M, Sabato S, et al. - The most recent data for antiretroviral therapy (ART) is far from conclusive. The use of drugs with greater efficacy and safety profiles, as well as ensuring ART availability, remains a public health challenge.

• The Study Group of Latin American Workshops on HIV (LAWSG) collected indicators from 79 HIV healthcare centres in 14 Latin American Spanish-speaking countries.

• The authors collected data from 116,299 people in care (PUC).

• One-third belonged to a centre where at least one ART drug was unavailable for more than 30 days in 2017.

• At the end of 2017, 95.1% of the PUC were receiving ART.

• Forty-five thousand three hundred twenty-nine people living with HIV (PLHIV) were admitted to 39 centres between 2013 and 2017.

• In 2017, the proportion of patients who began ART within the first year grew to 83.8%.

• It was noted that 71.7% of patients in 35 centres began ART with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and lamivudine.

• The use of zidovudine has declined.

• Efavirenz, the third most often used medicine, accounted for 64.8% of all prescriptions.

• Raltegravir and other alternatives grew by about 10% year on year in 2017.