Ataklti Gessesse Teka, Equbay Gebregzabiher, Ataklti Hailu Atsbaha, Mulugeta Tilahun Gebremedhin*, Ataklti, Geberetsadik, Hailay Gebretinssae, Tsegay Hadgu, Brhane Ayele, Abraham Aregay, Asfawesen Aregay, Tewelde Wubayehu, Teasfay Gebregzabher Gebrehiwet, Getachew Reda, Mache Tsadik, Tsegay Welay and Hagos Godifay
Background: Even though Ethiopia accepted the strategies to eliminate HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030 still the burden is continued to be one of the priority agenda at national and regional level, which needs subsequent responses particularly among the hotspot areas and key priority population. The prevalence of HIV in late 2018 was about 74.9 million people of them 32 million had died due to acquired immune deficiency syndrome related illness in the world and 38 million in 2019 of them 1.7 million were newly infected the United Nation program (UNAIDS) and thousands had died of the disease. SubSaharan African (SSA) countries including Ethiopia share the highest global burden of HIV/AIDS. With the introduction of antiretroviral therapies (ARTs), HIV is increasingly becoming a chronic manageable disease. The global efforts on people living with HIV (PLHV) and receiving ART has increased by third since 2013 and reached 17 million people received ART in 2015. Timely ART start among PLHIV donated that a pivotal role to handle the epidemic and can shifts from survival to improve quality of life through adherence, retention in care and speed up of viral suppression. The UNAIDS’ made an ambitious plan that less than 200,000 HIV prevalence worldwide and to end new HIV infection by 2030.
Treatment success requires both a sustainable supply of ART to clinics and lifelong adherence to treatment by patients. In the last 30 years, there was high achievement in effective preventive methods like behavioral, PMTCT care and treatment (ART). Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has played an important role in improving prognosis and quality of life of HIV/AIDS patients, reducing rate of disease progression and death, can also reduce the risk of HIV transmission to sexual partners by 96%, adherence is also considered a major predictor of survival among PLHIV/AIDS, more than 95% adherence to ART reduce destruction of CD4 cells, increase survival, and improve quality of life. The present study aimed to estimate trends of ART utilization among HIV-infected patients in Tigray region.
Method: A quantitative study design was used to know the prevalence of HIV and trend of ART utilization among KPP. Secondary data review (Chart/document) was done for the period of 2012 to 2019. Result According to the survey report, there was inconsistent HIV positivity rate across the reference period among different population segments and the trend in HIV positivity rate has shown a marked decline from 1.92% in 2012 to 0.65% in 2019. Here there were no any indicators which indicate HIV positive clients linked to ART till 2015. However, from 2015 to 2016, almost all the HIV positive clients linked to ART. After 2016, link to enrolments of HIV positive clients to ART clinics showed that declined trend across the years till 2019 which indicates that, many HIV positive clients didn’t get ART care.
Overall, there were fall down of HIV positive patients enrolled to ART care was 85.46%, 75.74% and 69.20% in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. However, poor ART adherence can create a dangerous public health problem and limit the effectiveness of available HIV treatments and is the most common reason for treatment failure. Poor ART adherence also leads to increased morbidity and mortality in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) as patients still show poor ART adherence, become a major obstacle for fighting against HIV/AIDS. Factors affecting ART adherence include patient characteristics, ART regimen, clinical setting, social and environmental factors, and the relationship between patients and their health care providers. The overall HIV prevalence in Tigray was 1.2% greater than the global cut off point declared epidemic (>1%) contributes 9% of PLHIV nationally. Taking different population segments in Tigray, HIV prevalence was inconsistent. Among urban adults of Ethiopian population the HIV impact assessment in Tigray was 2.7% (95% CI: 1.3-4.0). According to survey report on HIV prevalence estimation and projection showed 1.85% in 2015 and 1.7% in 2019. The HIV positivity rate at 18 months among HIV exposed infants showed declining trend 9.2% to 2.49% indicating a promising PMTCT service. The proportion of HIV positive cases among those who tested for HIV was about 0.008% (332/38750) and about 86% (284/332) of them were under clinical care and about 90% initiated ART in 2019 in Tigray.
Conclusion: Trends Link to enrolment of HIV positive clients to ART clinics have declined across years, indicates that, many HIV positive clients didn’t get ART care. Poor ART adherence can create a dangerous public health problem and limit the effectiveness of available HIV treatments and is the most common reason for treatment failure. Fall to-adherence can lead to drug-resistant HIV caused by failure to achieve maximal viral suppression. A number of efforts should be implemented in healthcare services throughout the region to increase ART utilization by KPP patients in Tigray
Published Date: 2023-11-29; Received Date: 2023-11-01
