Adverse Effect of Anti-Retroviral Therapy in HIV/AIDS Patients at Merpati Clinic, Wangaya Hospital in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

The uses of Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) are rising due to the increase of newly diagnosed Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive patients. HIV patient should take the medicine for lifetime to manage their disease. However, it is revealed from previous studies that poor adherence of ART usually caused by its adverse effect. The objective of this study is to learn about the adverse effect of ART and its association to other factors in HIV patients at Merpati Clinic Wangaya Hospital in Denpasar - Bali, Indonesia. A cross sectional study with retrospective review was conducted. All HIV patients on ART (regimen of tenovofir, zidovudine, lamivudine, nevirapine and efavirenz) were included on this study, except for pregnant woman. Data was taken from the patients medical record. From 107 patients included in this study, 52 (48.6 %) were complaining of adverse effect, and 9 (8.4 %) of them experiencing more than one type of adverse effect. Neuropsychiatric-related symptoms found on 12 (19.7 %) patients, gastrointestinal in 13 (21.3 %) patients, dermatologic in 25 (41 %) patients, and hematologic in 11 (18 %). No relationship were found between age, sex, weight, and HIV staging to adverse effect, while types of regimen and CD4+ count have significant correlation to the adverse effect (p-value 0.001 and 0.049 respectively). Combination of ZDV/3TC/NVP found to be the most prone to adverse effect. Adverse effect of ART in HIV patient should be monitored carefully, to keep patients adherence and better wellbeing. Treatment of adverse effect and change of regimen should always be considered in patients with adverse effect to ART.