TRIMESTRAL EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF HIGHLY ACTIVE ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY ON THE VIRAL LOAD, LIVER AND KIDNEY FUNCTION TESTS OF HIV PREGNANT WOMEN IN THE EAST REGION OF CAMEROON
Francisca Manyi Ottop*, Jules Clement Nguedia Assob, Robinson Enow MBU and Marcelin Ngowe Ngowe
ABSTRACT
Highly active antiretroviral is administered to all HIV positive pregnant women in Cameroon since 2012 for viral suppression, health improvement and prevention of HIV transmission to the babies. We evaluated the effect of this therapy on the viral load, liver and kidney function tests of HIV positive pregnant women in the East region of Cameroon.A prospective cohort study that lasted a year involving consented naïve to treatment HIV-infected pregnant women from three catchment health facilities in the East region. Real-time PCR viral load and spectrophotometric measures of ASAT, ALAT and blood creatinine were realized every two months. Data analysis was done using Graph Prism. Level of statistical significance was set p< 0.05.Fifty-three (53) women made up the cohort aged 15 - 40 (mean 27.28 ± 5.84) years. Baseline means of their log10 viral load, serum aspartate aminotransferase, serum alanine aminotransferase and serum creatinine levels were respectively 4.84, 22.81, 9.77 and 0.78. Six months on ART, the viral load was significantly undetectable (p < 0.0001) and ALAT significantly elevated to 16.46 IU/mL (p = 0.0022). However, ASAT and Creatinine levels were elevated to a statistical non-significant levels of 27.36 IU/mL (p=0.6432) and 0.83 mg/dL (p= 0.2936) respectively. Option B+ offers antiretroviral drugs indiscriminately to all pregnant HIV+ women that can effectively suppress their viral load but precautions to avoid liver and kidney adverse effects on the long run are needed.
Keywords: Pregnant, Viral load, Option B+, HAART, Transaminases, Creatinine.
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