The Impact of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) on Viral Load and CD4 Count amongst HIV-1 infected Subjects in Federal Medical Center Lokoja, Nigeria

This study was aimed at evaluating the role of antiretroviral drug monitoring, viral load, and CD4 counts amongst HIV-1 infected individuals in FMC, Lokoja, Nigeria, that randomly recruited 154 participants within the age range of 18 and 65 years with a population- based sample of males and females divided into three groups designated A to C; comprising of 40 HIV-1 seropositive individuals on HAART (TDF + 3TC + EFV) designated as group A, 35 HIV-1 seropositive individuals on HAART (AZT + 3TC +NVP) designated as group B, and 79 HAART naïve HIV-1 seropositive individuals designated as control group C. Two points blood samples were taken for group A and group B participants for the measurement of drugs(HAART) using HPLC, HIV-1 RNA Load using PCR and CD4 counts using flow cytometry while one point samples were taken for group C for the measurement of HIV-1 RNA Load and CD4 counts. Data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and Chi-square analysis. The results showed a significant difference in HIV-1 RNA Load and CD4 counts in group A when compared to group B and group C (p<0.05). There was also a significant difference in HIV-1 RNA Load and CD4 counts in group B when compared with group C (p<0.05). Plasma drug concentrations were higher at 12 months of therapy when compared with plasma drug concentrations at 6 months (p<0.05) with 17.4% virologic failure in participants on nevirapine based regimen and 7.5% virologic failure amongst participants on efavirenz based regimen; this showed the superiority efficacy of efavirenz based regimen to nevirapine based regimen.