WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Dinka Dugassa*

ABSTRACT

Background: Human Immune Virus (HIV) is responsible for a worldwide pandemic and it is the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). According to latest statistics 33.4 million individuals worldwide are living with HIV, of which 15.7 million (47%) are women and 2.1 million (6.3%) are children under 15 years. In addition there are 2.7 million new infections and 2.0 million deaths from AIDS worldwide. Result and Conclusion: Patients that changed their regimen were included in the study to identify the reasons for change and descriptive statistics were generated by Using SPSS & using excels for figures. Out of patients, % were females and % were in the age group -. % were WHO clinical stage III patients and % of patients had missed their CD4 count. In % of patients initial treatment regimen was modified after six months, while, in % and % of patient’s initial regimen was modified less than a month and within two to three month time respectively, the most common initial regimens were D4T/3TC/NVP (%), AZT/3TC/NVP (%) and D4T/3TC/EFV (%) The main reasons for modification of therapy were toxicity (%), new drug (%), treatment failure (%), new TB (%), stock out (%), and pregnancy (%) respectively. The main toxicity observed was peripheral neuropathy (%) followed by rash (%) and anemia (%). Among toxicities observed % were due to D4T/3TC/NVP, and the remaining %, %, %, %, % and % were due to AZT/3TC/NVP, D4T/3TC/EFV, AZT/3TC/EFV, TDF/3TC/EFV, TDF/3TC/NVP, and TDF/3TC/LPVr respectively. D4T containing regimens accounted for % of the peripheral neuropathy observed, while NVP containing regimens accounted for % of the rashes reported and AZT containing regimens accounted for % of the Anemia observed. Toxicity was the main reason for initial regimen modification, D4T based regimens had high incidence of peripheral neuropathy. Objective: To determine the reason and contributing factors of anti-retroviral regimen changes among patients on anti-retroviral therapy in ART clinic of Shambu Hospital. Method: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done using patient information sheet and physician diagnosis card from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2016.