Survival analysis of the time to suppress the HIV/AIDS virus among AIDS patients in Uganda: case study [of] Kawaala Health Center IV

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to find the time taken for the HIV/AIDS virus to be suppressed in the human body. Secondary data was obtained from Kawaala Health Centre IV where the HIV burden was high due to the number of new infections according the numbers from the HMIS data. When a person stays on treatment and maintains an undetectable viral load for at least 6 months, they are considered to have a durably undetected viral load. A patient having durably undetectable viral load there is effectively no risk of transmitting HIV/AIDS to your sexual partner. When treatment is stopped viral reservoirs reactivate and HIV begins multiplying. (US. HIV treatment guidelines , 2022) The 291 patients were monitored for a period of 2 years while they came to take their medication that’s from January 2020 to December 2021. The total time under the experiment 4393 months for all the patients. This is an infectious disease and this means different factors affect the spread of the virus. This study majorly focused on the patients who already have the virus and looking on how they live on after starting on their antiretroviral therapy. Majorly the regime of the ART, the age of a patient, the gender and the marital status. The viral load of the patients was taken on different occasions, the baseline viral load is the initial viral load before the start of the regime. The subsequent visits provide the frequency of and the follow up of the medication. The fourth visit was taken as the final last visit of the patient as long as it’s before 31 December 2021 and hence the viral load taken on the last visit was the reference point for the time taken to suppress the virus. Viral load should be measured every 3 to 4 months, people living with HIV should talk with their health care teams to determine an appropriate schedule for viral load testing. Hence over the courses of the 24 months of this study patients had different schedules and their viral loads taken at different intervals within that time period.