Socio-Demographical profile and True outcome for patients on Antiretrovial Therapy who are

Dr. Bairag Singh Parihar; Dr. Rajesh Kumar Meena; Dr. Naveen Kishoria; Dr Manisha Meena

Volume : X, Issue : VI, June - 2020

Socio-Demographical profile and True outcome for patients on Antiretrovial Therapy who are " Lost To Follow-Up '' at tertiary care ART Centre in Western Rajasthan, India.

Dr. Bairag Singh Parihar, Dr. Rajesh Kumar Meena, Dr. Naveen Kishoria, Dr Manisha Meena

Abstract :

Introduction–The objective of this work is to study socio–demographical profile of PLHA (patients living with HIV and AIDS) along with true outcome for patients on Antiretroviral therapy who are lost to follow up at tertiary care antiretroviral therapy (ART) centre. Methodology– Details of all patients who were enrolled in institute record system during the study period were recorded in master cards and an ART register. Patients attended the ART clinic each month and at that time their outcome status was entered on the master card. They were then also given another month supply of ART drugs. Results– Age range of study population has been 16 years to 75 years with 57.41% males and 42.49% females. Majority of the patients (50.38%) were in adult (31–45) age group. Mostly patients (57.25%) were from the rural background . This study recorded 66.28% alive patients (n=521), 11.95% died patients (n= 94) and 7.25% loss to follow up (n= 57). True outcome for patients (7.25 %) were lost to follow up. Various causes identified for the category of lost to follow up of ART in the present study were high cost of transport to clinic( 36.84% ) patients, religious beliefs (10.53%), persuasion by relative (8.77%), could not trace address (21.05%), CD4 improvement (7.02%) and other (15.79%). Conclusion– The study depicts predominance of male and young sexually active group belonging to rural background as more vulnerable. Major reasons as emerged from this study for not following up were transportation , finances and inability of tracing the patients due to the incorrect address recorded in the register