Correlation Between Level of Compliance With Antiretroviral Medicine to Viral Load in HIV/Aids Patients

Abstract

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a disease that attacks immune cells which includes primary infection, with or without acute syndrome, asymptomatic stages, to advanced stages. Treatment for HIV infection is carried out by giving antiretroviral therapy. Compliance with taking antiretroviral drugs will affect the results of viral load examination in determining treatment. Viral load is a marker of viral replication in laboratory tests. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between adherence to antiretroviral medication and viral load in HIV/AIDS patients. The research design used is the cross-sectional approach method. The study used secondary data on HIV AIDS patients who were taking TLD-type ARV therapy and carrying out viral load tests at the VCT Polyclinic at Sanjiwani Hospital, Gianyar from January to December 2022, as many as 74 people. The results showed that 60 people (81.1%) were dominantly obedient in taking antiretroviral medication. The dominant viral load test results were undetectable in 35 people (47.3%). Based on the results of data analysis, it is known that there is a relationship between the level of adherence to taking antiretroviral medication and viral load in HIV/AIDS sufferers at the VCT Polyclinic at Sanjiwani Hospital, Gianyar. The result of the correlation coefficient is 0.736 which means there is a strong relationship. This shows that adherence to taking antiretroviral drugs can determine how well antiretroviral treatment is in reducing the amount of virus in the body of HIV patients.