Opportunistic infections remain a major public health especially among HIV positive patients with a weakened immune system.HIV-positive patients have been more predisposed to these diseases depending on their awareness of status and compliance with treatment. Once a person has HIV, the microorganisms multiply and damages the immune system. Some of the opportunistic infections those HIV patients are predisposed to include: Candidiasis, Salmonella infection, ToxoplasmosisToxoplasmosis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis (TB). The rise of common opportunistic infections among patients on care has become a burden to many sectors including the government which has to invest in more expenditures and budget focus in terms of medications,follow up etc thus also being a burden to health care workers.The opportunistic infections have caused morbidity and mortality among the HIV infected patients.Some of the risk actors predisposing patients to opportunistic infections include low socioeconomic status,non-adherence to ARVs and OI mediations. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the common opportunistic infections among HIV positive patients. This study was conducted at Kisumu County Referral hospital in which a qualitative approach was used to assess information provided by chosen population whilea quantitative approach to collect numerical data and compare different results including number of times the patients on care have acquired opportunistic infections. A descriptive analysis was presented using tables,percentages and figures for analysis in which the risk of acquiring common opportunistic infections was calculated.A percentage of 61.16% were patients under a low socioeconomic status which was higher than half the population. Defaulters have the highest percentage of 70.37% in being non-adherent to ARVs medications while those who were on OI medications resulted to the least perecentage of 3.70% from defaulters and 33.33% from missed doses of the OI medications thus being predisposed to more infections. Low socioeconomic status,nonadherence to ARV medications and failure to take OI medications resulted to a higher risk of developing opportunistic infections.Therefore ,patients should be encouraged to attend regular clinic checkups,to provide mass education and counseling and form groups of patients on care to encourage drug adherence.

Abstract

Opportunistic infections remain a major public health especially among HIV positive patients with a weakened immune system.HIV-positive patients have been more predisposed to these diseases depending on their awareness of status and compliance with treatment. Once a person has HIV, the microorganisms multiply and damages the immune system. Some of the opportunistic infections those HIV patients are predisposed to include: Candidiasis, Salmonella infection, ToxoplasmosisToxoplasmosis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis (TB). The rise of common opportunistic infections among patients on care has become a burden to many sectors including the government which has to invest in more expenditures and budget focus in terms of medications,follow up etc thus also being a burden to health care workers.The opportunistic infections have caused morbidity and mortality among the HIV infected patients.Some of the risk actors predisposing patients to opportunistic infections include low socioeconomic status,non-adherence to ARVs and OI mediations. The main objective of this research is to evaluate the common opportunistic infections among HIV positive patients. This study was conducted at Kisumu County Referral hospital in which a qualitative approach was used to assess information provided by chosen population whilea quantitative approach to collect numerical data and compare different results including number of times the patients on care have acquired opportunistic infections. A descriptive analysis was presented using tables,percentages and figures for analysis in which the risk of acquiring common opportunistic infections was calculated.A percentage of 61.16% were patients under a low socioeconomic status which was higher than half the population. Defaulters have the highest percentage of 70.37% in being non-adherent to ARVs medications while those who were on OI medications resulted to the least perecentage of 3.70% from defaulters and 33.33% from missed doses of the OI medications thus being predisposed to more infections. Low socioeconomic status,nonadherence to ARV medications and failure to take OI medications resulted to a higher risk of developing opportunistic infections.Therefore ,patients should be encouraged to attend regular clinic checkups,to provide mass education and counseling and form groups of patients on care to encourage drug adherence.