Abstract:
Abstract
Introduction: Despite Ant-retro Viral Treatment coverage in resource-limited
countries are highly appreciated, the occurrence of first line drug resistance is the
priority agenda. To reduce the emergency of resistant viruses, virological monitoring
plays a great role. However, many resource limited countries have difficulty in
monitoring viral load and there is limited evidence in developing countries including
Ethiopia towards virological failure in children and adolescents. Therefore, this study
serves as an input for evidence of virological failure.
Objective: The aim of the study was to assess incidence and predictors of
virological failure among HIV infected children and adolescents on first line ART
Ethiopia, 2021.
Methods: An Institution based retrospective follow up study was employed on 492
children and adolescents. Data were collected by trained nurses from HIV national
intake follow up form and entered using Epi-data version 4.6, and exported to Stata
version 14 for analysis. The proportional hazard assumption was checked, and the
Weibull regression was fitted. Cox-Snell residual was used to test the goodness of
fit, and the appropriate model was selected by AIC. Finally, an AHR with a 95% CI
was computed, and variables with P-value < 0.05 in the multivariable analysis were
taken as significant predictors of virological failure.
Results: The overall incidence rate of virological failure was 4.2,
Conclusion and Recommendation: The incidence rate virological failure was high.
Residence being in rural area, poor adherence, lower CD4 count and recent
opportunistic infection were independent risk factors associated with virological
failure. Hence, it is better to give priority for strengthening the focused evaluation on
important variables and manage accordingly.
Keywords: Virological failure, HIV/AIDS, First-line ART, children and adolescents.
