Determinants of viral suppression among adolescents on antiretroviral therapy in Thabo Mofutsanyane District Municipality, Free State province, South Africa

Abstract

In 2018, it was estimated that 33,000 adolescent girls and 4,200 adolescent boys were HIV-positive in South Africa. The Free State province reports that 89% of people living with HIV are diagnosed; 72% of those diagnosed are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART); of which 93% have achieved viral suppression (< 1000 RNA copies/mL). Thabo Mofutsanyane District has the highest HIV prevalence in the Free State province. A retrospective, quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the predictors of viral suppression among adolescents on ART in Thabo Mofutsanyane District Municipality, Free State province, South Africa. Data for all adolescents, aged 10–19 years, receiving ART in 2019 (N = 6 300) was extracted from Tier.net electronic database into an Excel spread sheet and exported into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences – Version 26 (SPSS v 26) for analysis.