DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i03.014

Pages: 696-703

Antiretroviral drugs are successful in controlling HIV/AIDS and reducing disease progression. Antiretroviral regimens are stopped in up to 25% of all patients during their initial treatment therapy as a result of adverse drug effects, failing treatment and non adherence within the initial eight months of treatment. A pharmacovigilance surveillance system makes it possible for physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare providers to report suspected ADRs. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and severity of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) among HIV/AIDS patients at ART centre, Jodhpur. In our study, 595 patients were included for study of ADRs of the ART for period of one year. These patients were interviewed and examined in each follow-up visits for ART related problems or Opportunistic Infections (OIs). Of the 595 patients, only 120 patients were developed total 188 ADRs. In this study, adverse drug reactions were observed to be present more in males as compared to females and majority of the patients were in the age group of 31-45 years. Incidence of ADRs was 20.16% (120/595). Most commonly encountered side effects were hematological (26.59%), gastrointestinal (20.74%), cutaneous (18.61%), neurological (8.51%) and musculoskeletal (7.97%). Causality assessment by Naranjo’s scale, most of ADRs was ‘possible’ (62.76%). Severity assessment showed that most of the reported ADRs 11.6% were mild and 85.2% were moderate in nature while 4.2% was life threatening. This concluded that earlier ART initiation, before the development of a low CD4 cell count and opportunistic infection, may reduce the incidence of adverse effects.