Abstract
A clinic for HIV-infected patients was set up at the Sawangdandin Crown Prince
Hospital, Sakon Nakhon Province in October 2002. This study was conducted during the
period from October 2002 through September 2007 to collect clinical as well as administrative data from the outpatient and inpatient medical records of all HIV patients who
attended the Clinic during the period October 2002 to September 2007. Descriptive data,
i.e., frequency, percentage, means and standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum
values, derived from the use of the Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test
were obtained.
The results showed that the HIV-infected patients were 54.4 percent male and 45.6
percent female, their average age 35.5 years, education status 72.3 percent primary school,
agriculture 73 percent, and heterosexual infection risk 93 percent. There were significant
differences in the median amounts of CD4 when they started taking anti-HIV drugs (p
value= 0.035). There was no statistically significant difference in the median duration
from contracting HIV infection to the treatment period (p = 0.113). The most common
drug regimen used was Nevirapine, Lamivudine and Stavudine during the periods 2002-
2004 and 2005-2007 (75.8%), and the response rate was 81.7 percent. There was no statistically
significant difference in median duration of response to anti-HIV drugs depending
on the amount of CD4 (p= 0.088). Side effects of anti-HIV drugs included skin rashes,
neuritis and cheek lipoatrophy. The most common of the opportunistic infections was
pulmonary tuberculosis. The initial time to receive drugs was quite delayed when a CD4
level of lower than 100 cells/ml was used as an indicator. When acute symptoms subsided,
the majority of patients moved to new working areas and received drugs via relatives.
The result was inconsistent taking of drugs and drug resistance usually developed
thereafter. In such a context, the author has suggested that HIV patients should be given
information about opportunistic infection and CD4 levels. Regular care and medications
for the patients would be effective if high-quality networks are set up. Finally, it is
importanct to pursue the cooperation of organizations offering work and proper income
for the patients after their condition has been improved by treatment with anti-HIV drugs.
