Virological and Immunological Status of the People Living with HIV Undertaking Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy.

Background The major goal of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is immunological recovery and virological suppression. Immunological and virological response in People Living with HIV (PLHIV) undertaking ART has to be monitored to assess the treatment response, diagnosing treatment failure and switching antiretroviral therapy. Objective To assess the immunological and virological response to antiretroviral therapy among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected individuals. Method This is a cross-sectional study including people living with HIV (PLHIV) taking antiretroviral therapy for at least 6 months and was conducted in Dhulikhel Hospital in 2017. The socio-demographic profile, clinical characteristics, CD4 count and viral load were analyzed. Descriptive analysis of socio-demographic and other characteristics was done. Result Fifty-two patients undertaking antiretroviral therapy were included in the study with the mean age of 29.69±9.59 years at diagnosis. The majority of the patients were male (51.9%). Sexual transmission was the dominant mode of transmission (78.9%). The mean CD4 count at baseline was 244.08±214.32 cells/µL. Four patients (7.7%) had a virological failure. There was a discordance between immunological and virological response in patients taking antiretroviral therapy for more than 2 years' duration with four patients with a recent CD4 count of ≤250 cells/µL had virological suppression. The mean CD4 count at treatment increased from 229.65 cells/µL to 453.33 cells/µL after 1 year of commencement of antiretroviral therapy (p<0.001). Conclusion There are optimal CD4 recovery and virological suppression as expected with antiretroviral therapy use.