Background information: HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is one of the world’s most serious public health challenges. There were approximately 37.6 million people across the globe with HIV in 2020. Of these, 35.9 million were adults and 1.7 million were children (<15 years old).An estimated 1.5 million individuals worldwide acquired HIV in 2020, marking a 30% decline in new HIV infections since 2010 (3). In 2019, 1.7 million people were living with HIV in Tanzania. This equates to an estimated HIV prevalence among adults of 4.8% in the same year, 77,000 people were newly infected with HIV, and 27,000 people died from an AIDS-related illness (4).
As of the end of 2020, 27.4 million people with HIV (73%) were accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally. That means 10.2 million people are still waiting. HIV treatment access is key to the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat. People with HIV who are aware of their status, take ART daily as prescribed, and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long, healthy lives and have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners (5).
Tanzania has done well to control the HIV epidemic over the last decade. Scaling up access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) has meant that between 2010 and 2018, the number of new infections declined by 13% and the number of people dying from an AIDS-related illness has halved. And in 2019, 75% of adult living with HIV/AIDS were on ART and 66% of the children living with HIV/AIDS were also on ART (5).
Despite the efforts put by WHO on making sure everyone living with HIV/AIDS have access to ART but the efforts have been challenging, because of people on medication failing to adhere properly on the prescribed ART drugs. Different studies on non-adherence to Antiretroviral treatment have been conducted in Tanzania in different areas where show about 18% of people on ART don’t adhere to medications as prescribed due to different reasons. A good example is a study which was conducted in Dar es Salaam this study was undertaken at three treatment and care clinics in Dar es Salaam. A sample of 197 individuals on ARV and 30 health care providers were interviewed. The sample comprised of 76 % females and 24% males, with mean age 34. About 74% of individuals on ARV were aged between 25 - 45 years. The prevalence of non-adherence to ART was 21% and individuals on ARV recommended factors responsible for non-adherence as lack of awareness 63.5%, stigma 56%, side effects 53.3%, and costs 28%. Other factors were being busy 25.4%, away from home 21.3%, forgetting 12.2% and ARVs out of stock 10.2%.(6).