Two endoscopic diagnoses, oesophageal candidiasis and Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), are AIDS-defining diagnoses. These diagnoses rose steeply during the early years of the HIV epidemic in Zambia and have declined since 2005, which is when antiretroviral therapy was scaled up across Zambia (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 HIV-related disorders over time: oesophageal candidiasis and Kaposi’s sarcoma are shown. The first publication defining the emergence of AIDS in Zambia was published in 1984 [24], and antiretroviral treatment became available at scale through public health facilities in 2005