41 Because cough is not a well-documented adverse event to the prescribed ARV drugs in this study, it is difficult to identify the specific ARV drug responsible for this in a retrospective study. This will be the basis for a

prospective study where causality between each ART regimen and cough can be adequately assessed. The prevalence of fever and rashes were considerable in this study. This could be due to the fact NVP-based ART regimen was the most frequently prescribed. Rash is a common adverse event associated with NVP and other NNRTIs.40 A few medications can cause fever but it is considered an adverse effect of ARV drug if the fever was accompanied by a rash. Fever and rash are symptoms of hypersensitivity reactions MS 275 to some ARV drugs especially DRV and ABC.42 Only very few of the well-known and common adverse effects of ARV drugs such as lip dystrophy, peripheral neuropathy, nausea and vomiting were reported in this study. Patients with poor adherence are more likely to report adverse drug events since these could contribute to their poor adherence status. Limitations One of the limitations of this study was lack of adequate information on certain risk factors for adverse events. For example, data was not obtained on comorbid conditions like tuberculosis as stated earlier. A prospective study involving recruitment of patients and long term www.selleckchem.com/products/ve-821.html follow up after initiation of ART

would have provided more information and permitted more extensive follow up. These would have allowed a better case causality assessment for any of the adverse events. Another limitation was incomplete laboratory data for many of the patients. Apart from viral load and

CD4+ cell counts, other laboratory tests results like liver function test, creatinine clearance, lipid profiles and blood sugar level were not extracted for analysis because data were not available. Therefore, adverse events reported were mainly clinical. Furthermore some of the suspected ADEs reported were similar to the symptoms and signs of HIV/AIDS which further reinforces the need to report the clinical stages at presentation and/or enrolments. Patients on concomitant antimalarial medication (artemisinin-based combination therapy) were not excluded because of the burden of malaria in Nigeria. This group of drugs is known theoretically to interact adversely with ARV drugs43 and may have probably contributed to the observed Adenosine adverse events. Conclusion A combination of AZT-3TC-NVP was the most frequently prescribed ARV drugs in APIN clinic, LUTH. Many of the ART regimens prescribed were outside the WHO and national guidelines for HIV/AIDS treatment, suggesting an irrational prescription. Cough, fever and skin rashes were the most frequently reported adverse events by the patients. Intensive efforts are required to improve adherence, as this is essential for good therapeutic outcome.
Urinary schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by Shistosoma haematobium.