Abstract:

Background: The loss of follow up visits among HIV positive adults and on antiretroviral therapy is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Tanzania. The loss of follow up visits brings a big challenge in Care and Treatment Centre (CTC) as many HIV clients are not attending clinics as scheduled. Prevalence and outcome of the loss of follow up visits vary from regions and within the region depending on the availability of health facilities which provides CTC services and the economic situation of the people in the region. In this regard, even though BMC is a zonal hospital (lake zone), there is no study which has been done to find out prevalence and outcome of the loss of follow up visits among HIV positive adults who are attending CTC.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and outcome of the loss of follow up among HIV positive patients attending at BMC CTC

Methodology: A retrospective and cross sectional study of prevalence and outcome of lost of follow up of HIV infected clients at BMC-CTC from January 2014 to January 2018 was conducted by reviewing files and CTC database of clients. A checklist was used to collect the available information from the CTC records. Data entry and analysis was completed by using SPSS software.

Significance of the study: This research was useful in determining the prevalence and outcome of lost of follow up among HIV patients attending BMC-CTC and it provided education on ARV’s adherence and importance of attending the clinic and it gave the consequence of missing the ARV’s to the clients.