Rate of viral load change and adherence of HIV adult patients treated with Efavirenz or Nevirapine antiretroviral regimens at 24 and 48 weeks in Yaounde, Cameroon : a longitudinal cohort study
Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC (part of Springer Nature)
Abstract
Background: HIV-load decrease and suppression over time is associated with consistent adherence to antiretroviral
therapy (ART). Our study aimed to evaluate the difference in viral load and adherence of patients treated with a
combination of either Tenofovir (TDF), Lamivudine (3TC) and Efavirenz (EFV) or TDF / Zidovudine (AZT), 3TC and
Nevirapine (NVP) regimens at 24 and 48 weeks.
Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted from May 2016 to June 2017 among 256 HIV infected adult patients
who were enrolled at two approved treatment hospitals in Yaoundé, before the start of first-line ART. Whole blood
samples were collected using standard operating procedures. HIV-loads were determined by a quantitative
RealTime PCR assay. Adherence was evaluated by pharmacy refill data records. Statistical analyses were performed
using the PRISM 5.0 software.
Results: Off the 256 HIV infected patients enrolled, 180 (70%) patients completed the study and 76 (30%) patients
were lost to follow-up. The success rate in achieving viral load < 40 copies/ml was 1.8 times higher with the EFV
regimen at 24 weeks and was 1.2 times higher in the NVP regimen at 48 weeks. At 48 weeks the treatment failure
rate was 12.0 and 40.0% in patients on EFV and the NVP regimen, respectively. The rate of adherence varied in both
ART based regimens with 84.0 to 74.0% for EFV and 65.5 to 62.5% for NVP, at 24 and 48 weeks respectively.
Conclusion: In our study and setting, the rate of viral load decrease was higher in the NVP based regimen than
with the EFV regimen. The adherence rate to ART was higher in the EFV regimen, compared to the NVP regimen.
This adds to evidence that the EFV regimen is the preferred ART combination for non-nucleoside reverse
transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs).
Description
CITATION: Chendi, B. H., et al. 2019. Rate of viral load change and adherence of HIV adult patients treated with Efavirenz or Nevirapine antiretroviral regimens at 24 and 48 weeks in Yaounde, Cameroon : a longitudinal cohort study. BMC Infectious Diseases, 19:194, doi:10.1186/s12879-019-3824-7.
The original publication is available at https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com
The original publication is available at https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com
Keywords
HIV infected adult, Cell adhesion, Nevirapine, Efavirenz, HIV-infected persons
Citation
Chendi, B. H., et al. 2019. Rate of viral load change and adherence of HIV adult patients treated with Efavirenz or Nevirapine antiretroviral regimens at 24 and 48 weeks in Yaounde, Cameroon : a longitudinal cohort study. BMC Infectious Diseases, 19:194, doi:10.1186/s12879-019-3824-7