Adherence was considered good when it was 95% and above or poor when it was below 95%. The adherence levels were correlated with therapeutic outcome through laboratory measurement of CD4+ cell count and viral load. Therapeutic outcome was good when the CD4+ cell count increased by at least 50 to 100 cells/dL and the viral load was reduced to undetectable level within 3 to 6 months of commencing ARV therapy34. Virological failure occurred when

the viral load failed to reduce to undetectable level within 3 to 6 months of commencement of HAART and when the CD4+ cell count did not increase by at least 50 GSK J4 supplier cells /dL within same period this was considered immunological failure. Data analysis The major outcomes measured were the types and frequency of ART regimens prescribed, adherence to treatments, and the types and frequency of adverse events to the ARV drugs experienced by the patients. Birinapant concentration Data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. A Chi-square test with Yates correction was used to determine an association between adherence and therapeutic outcome at a 5% level of significance. Ethical considerations The research protocol was reviewed and approved by

the Research and Ethics Committee of LUTH.. Results Socio-demographic characteristics The records of 390 eligible patients were reviewed in this study. The median age of the patients was 32 (range 13–67) years, while the mean age was 35years (sd 9.67). The socio-demographics of the patients are as presented in Table 1. Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of participants Prescribed ART regimes A total of 2944 prescriptions were reviewed and 23 different ARV drug combinations were prescribed. The patterns of ART regimens prescribed at the clinic are presented in Table 2. The most frequently prescribed regimen was AZT-3TC-NVP, followed by D4T-3TC-NVP Table 2 Different Antiretroviral Drug Combinations and their Frequency of Prescription Adherence and therapeutic outcome The majority of DNA ligase the patients (75%) with good adherence had good therapeutic outcome and almost all (95%) of those who adhered poorly had therapeutic failure. Subjecting this to chi square analysis showed

that drug adherence was associated with good therapeutic outcome (χ2 = 115.60, p<0.0001). Table 3 shows the association between adherence and therapeutic outcome. Table 3 Relationship between Adherence and Therapeutic outcome Adverse events associated with ARV drugs The adverse events associated with the use of the various ARV drugs are summarized in Table 4. Table 4 Adverse Drug Events of Antiretroviral Drug Combinations at LUTH PEPFAR Clinic. Only complaints or ailments that developed or were observed in each of the patients after the commencement of therapy of a particular combination of antiretroviral drugs were included. A total of 90 different adverse events were recorded ranging from minor symptoms such as rash and catarrh to serious ones such as hepatomegaly and death.