Prevalence & Causes of Antiretroviral Treatment Failure Among Adults Receiving Therapy at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
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Date
2010
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Abstract
Background: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) program at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital began in February 2004 with Six (6) patients. As at April 2009, a little over four thousand two hundred (4,200) people had been offered antiretroviral drugs cumulatively. Whereas a significant number of the patients are responding very well to treatment, others have experienced treatment failure on first line regimen and subsequently been switched to second line regimen. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of antiretroviral treatment failure among adults at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
Method: The study was retrospective, organized in two phases. The first phase was designed to examine patients’ folders and to collect data relevant to the topic under study. The second phase involved personal interviews of patients who satisfied the requirements of participating in the study. For the purpose of the first phase a data collection tool (appendix 1) was designed and used.
Results: The prevalence of antiretroviral treatment failure among adult patients attending clinic at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital was found to be approximately 3.7%. More than 50% of the study population experienced failure by the end of their tenth month after treatment initiation. Some 14% of the study participants demonstrated no positive immunological response to initiation/continuation therapy.
Conclusion: Poor adherence to treatment was found to be a possible factor contributing to treatment failure. Underpinning this were financial and resource constraints. Previous exposure to antiretroviral medicines was not found to be a direct cause of treatment failure in this study but the result is suggestive.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Clinical and Social Pharmacy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Master of Science.