Extending follow-up visits in people with HIV (PWH) receiving bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (BIC/FTC/TAF) therapy: an expert opinion.

Our confidence on the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy has steadily increased in the last decade thanks to the continuous improvement of drugs, strategies and the ability to cope with the increase in life expectancy of people with HIV (PWH). Nevertheless antiretroviral therapy keeps on being a lifelong commitment and the current clinical research on anti-HIV treatment also points on the possibility to mitigate a series of remaining difficulties like patients' adherence, stigma and the logistic burden associated to periodical monitoring and drug refills. The newly developed long-acting injectables drugs made it possible to reduce the frequency of administration and improved adherence, but at present the recipients of these new solutions are asked to join the outpatient HIV services at least every two months to receive their injections and undergo immunovirological monitoring. This also because these newly developed options consist of two (2DR) instead of three drugs and such close monitoring might be necessary due to the lesser genetic barrier and forgiveness. The patients who instead are under stable oral antiretroviral therapy with persistent virologic suppression may benefit from extension of the time between consecutive controls. This particularly applies when 2