Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: HIV viral load test has been recently rolled out as the standard of care for monitoring patients’ response to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Tanzania. Scarce information on HIV viral suppression exists in Tanzania since the adoption of this intervention at public health level.
Objectives: This study aimed at determining HIV viral suppression rate among patients attending at Temeke regional referral hospital care and treatment clinic within twelve months of using antiretroviral therapy.
Methodology: Two study designs were used; a hospital-based retrospective cohort study was conducted among HIV patients initiated on ART between May and November 2016 at Temeke Hospital, Dar es salaam, Tanzania to assess proportion of patients with viral suppression after one year of using ART, and a cross-sectional component was used to assess factors associated with HIV viral suppression. Viral load suppression was defined as HIV-RNA below 50 copies per ml.
Results: A total of 484 patients were retained at Temeke Regional Referral hospital CTC after 12 months of initiation. Among these, 419 (86.6%) patients had HIV viral load measurements within 12 months of ART use. HIV viral suppression was achieved in 318 (75.9%) patients between 6th and 12th month of ART. Factors associated with HIV viral suppression at 12 months were; good adherence to ART; (OR: 11.4; 95% CI 1.1 – 115.5; P = 0.04) and baseline CD4 + T lymphocyte count ≥ 200 cells/µl (OR: 11.2; 95% CI 1.4 – 87.2; P = 0.02).
Conclusion: HIV viral suppression at Temeke HIV CTC is still below the recommended WHO target to end AIDS epidemic by 2030; which requires 90% of patients on ART to have viral suppression to attain the sustainable development goal, SDG (3.3). Earlier initiation of ART among HIV patients would significantly improve HIV viral suppression.
