Albert Luguterah¹, Mustapha Adams^1,

The monitoring of CD4 counts are a basis for assessing the effectiveness of most HIV treatments. Understanding the way CD4 cells change over time among patients on ART could provide insight into the way Patients respond to treatment and how effective treatment is with time. This study examine the changes in CD4 countover time and the effect of some plausible factors on this change for Patients who were on Antiretroviral Therapy(ART) in The Builsa District Hospital in Ghana. Retrospective data from the HIV/AIDS Monitoring Program at the Builsa District hospital, in which patients had enrolled and their CD4 cell count were regularly being monitored every six months, forming repeated measures of CD4 counts, was used for our study: Profile analysis was used to study the pattern of change in the CD4 count. While treatment remained effective, the results showed that the trend of CD4 count over time was logarithmic indicating that the effectiveness of treatment, decreased with time. While the gender and marital status of the patientsdo not show any statistically significant differentials to this, the educational and religious status of the patients, as well as the drug used in the treatment do.

HIV, CD4 cells, antiretroviral therapy, profile analysis