Virological Therapeutic Failure and Associated Factors in People Living with HIV Followed up at the Regional Hospital and University of Borgou (RHU-B) in 2019

Introduction: Antiretroviral treatment has made a considerable reduction in morbidity and mortality in HIV patients, but its effectiveness is compromised by the emergence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and also treatment failure. The goal is to study Virological therapeutic failure and the factors associated with HIV patients followed at RUH-B. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study covering the period from 21st July to 21st September 2019. The study enrolled patients 18 years old and above, on antiretroviral treatment for at least 6 months. For the survey, a questionnaire and review of the medical records were used. The variable studied was virological treatment failure. Data analysis was performed using EPI-INFO version 7 and STATA 11 software. The significance level was 5%. Results: A total of 498 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 40 ± 9.90 years. The sex ratio was 0.3. The frequency of treatment failure was 15.3%. The factors associated with the occurrence of treatment failure were: phytotherapy, occurrence of opportunistic infections during follow-up, poor compliance with antiretrovirals, lack of weight gain and anemia during follow-up. Conclusion: This study had shown that treatment failure was frequent in patients. The systematic investigation for failure should be done in all people living with HIV patients on antiretrovirals.