Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract NACNDC/19JASH036 (Oral 3D) | Published: 20 Nov 2025
Ventrina Lanyero1, Felix Bongomin1,2, Daniel Ebbs3, Ritah Nantale4, Emmanuel Ochola1,5
1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu, Uganda, 2Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda, 3Section of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, 4Department of Community and Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Mbale, Uganda, 5Department of HIV, Research and Documentation, St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, Uganda
&Corresponding author: Ventrina Lanyero, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu, Uganda, Email: vlanyero@jcrc.org.ug
Received: 25 Aug 2025, Accepted: 20 Oct 2025, Published: 20 Nov 2025
Domain: HIV Epidemiology
Keywords: HIV, ART, Viral load, Non-suppression, Children and Adolescents, Uganda
©Ventrina Lanyero et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Ventrina Lanyero et al. Factors associated with HIV RNA viral non-suppression among children and adolescents living with HIV attending public health facilities in Gulu city, Uganda. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc6):036. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO6-00036
Viral load testing is the gold standard for anti-retroviral therapy (ART) monitoring. Achieving viral suppression is central to abating HIV complication. Evidence suggests that children and adolescents with HIV (CAWH) have much lower viral load suppression rates. However, data on the incidence of viral load non-suppression(VLNS) and its associated factors among CAWH in Northern Uganda is scarce. Therefore, we assessed the factors associated with HIV RNA viral load non-suppression among CAWH in Gulu city, Uganda.
A retrospective cohort study, utilizing a data abstraction tool to collect information on HIV RNA VLNS at 6, 12, 18, 24 months and at the latest follow-up among 218 CAWH at public facilities in Gulu city. Bivariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to identify the factors associated with viral load non suppression. Hazard ratio with 95% CI and p-value were used to assess the strength and statistical significance of association.
The median age of the 218 participants was 12.5 (IQR: 7-18) years and majority (70.2%, n=153) were female. A total of 99 (45.4%) had viral load non-suppression during the follow-up period. The overall incidence rate of HIV viral non suppression was 10.3 cases per 100 person-years and the median time to viral non-suppression was 0.49 years. Age<5 years [Adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR)]:2.59; 95% CI: 1.30-5.17), poor adherence to ART (aHR:1.96; 95% CI: 1.21-3.17), non-disclosure (aHR:2.19; 95% CI: 1.27-3.80), late WHO clinical stage (Stage III and IV) (aHR:3.07; 95% CI: 1.41-6.69), and having economic challenges (aHR:2.13; 95% CI: 1.32-3.42) were significantly associated with viral non suppression.
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