The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the concomitant use of herbal medicine and anti-retroviral drugs in people living with HIV/AIDs and to evaluate the reasons given by the pati ents for concomitant admini stration of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) with herbal drugs in order to establi sh a possible link between the use of herbal medicines and adherence. A cross sectional study design was utilized via systematic sampling for recruitment of HIV positive individual s receiving their medications in Amuwo-Odofin and Ojo areas in Lagos, Nigeria. Based on the inclusion criteria, 351 HIV positive patients were recruited into the study from the HIV outpatient clinics of two hospital s and had the questionnaires administered to them. 42.7% of the respondents stated that they use herbal medicines. The association for each of the herbal medicines with side effects experienced with the use of ARV s wa s stati sti cally significant upon cross-tabulation and was a major predictor of herbal drug use. The prevalence of herbal drug use in patients who were adhering to HAART medication was not signi ficantly different from those who were not adhering to medication (p = 0.75 and χ 2 = 6.902). The use or lack of use of herbal medicine is not a determinant for adherence. The most profound reason for herb use was to improve treatment. However, herb/drug interaction studie s are imperative to ascertain if interactions occurring are beneficial or harmful. The pharmacist must counsel and re -counsel patients on HAART, not to use herbal products with their antiretroviral medications to avoid drug -herb interactions which could be potentially life threatening.

Background/objective: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends routine assessment of antiretroviral treatment outcomes to detect  treatment failure early and prevent the development of drug resistance. The aim of this study was to describe treatment outcomes of antiretroviral therapy (ART) over 2 years in children living with the human immune deficiency virus enrolled in the paediatric HIV clinic at the Lagos UniversityTeaching Hospital (LUTH).Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study of antiretroviral treatment outcomes in 278 children receiving antiretroviral therapy at the paediatric HIV clinic of LUTH. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively collected from clinical records of pediatric patientswho received antiretroviral therapy for 2 years ( from November 2015 to December 2017) . Virological failure was defined as viral load > 400  copies/ml and immunological failure was defined as a CD4 count <100 cells/mm3 or CD4 % <15% after receiving antiretroviral agents for 12 months. Data was analysed using graph pad prism version 5.0.Results: After 12 months on antiretroviral therapy (ART), 101 (36%) had virological failure while 14 (5%) and 36 (13%) failed immunologically [CD4 count <100 cells/mn3 and CD4 <15% respectively]. Virological blips were observed at 24 months in 6.1% of patients while immunovirological discordance occurred in 30% of patients (poor virological clearance despite good immunological recovery) . High baseline viral load (>5000  copies/ml), poor adherence (<95%) and low baseline CD4 counts (101-249 cells/mn3) were significantly associated with virological failure, while low baseline CD4 counts (<350 cells/mn3) and poor adherence (<95%) were significantly associated with immunologic failure.Conclusion: The treatment outcomes observed in this study are similar to those reported in earlier studies. At 1 and 2 years of antiretroviral therapy , there was immune restoration however 101 (36%) and 87 (31%) respectively had virological failure despite good adherence to therapy and good Immunological restoration. This calls for early initiation and switch to second and third line drugs . Key words: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), zidovudine, lamivudine, nevirapine, virological blips, immunovirological discordance , children, Nigeria.