Abstract:
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has markedly decreased the morbidity and mortality due to HIV
disease. However, toxicities, comorbidity, pregnancy, and treatment failure, among others, would result in
frequent initial HAART regimen change.
Aim:
The study was designed to assess the causes of initial highly active antiretroviral therapeutic regimen changes
among patients on HAART.
Materials and Methods:
The study was conducted using a retrospective institution-based study, by reviewing the patient information
sheet and physician diagnosis cards. Patient cards that showed a change in the initial treatment regimen were
assessed and analyzed, to identify the common reason that resulted in a change from the initial treatment
regimen. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.
Results:
A total of 340 patient cards were assessed. The majority of the patients (69.29%) were females. The most
common first regimen, before the first switch, was stavudine / lamivudine / nevirapine (D4T/3TC/NVP)
(54.70%) and stavudine / lamivudine / Efavirenz (D4T/3TC/EFV) (20.88%). The main reasons for
modification were toxicity, comorbidity, pregnancy, and treatment failure. The main types of toxicities
observed were peripheral neuropathy (36.52%), rash (17.83%), and anemia (17.39%).
Conclusion:
Toxicity was the main reason for the modification of initial HAART among the study population.
Efavirenz-based regimens had the lowest hazard for change relatively, except in pregnancy-related cases.
