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Background: Treatment and care services for HIV patients in Tanzania began 2004 with free access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART). More than 1000 HIV clinics have been established to-date. Each clinic is obliged to provide statistical and clinical feedback for further improvement.Broad objective: The objective of this study was to establish baseline epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients who are ART naïve attending Sekou Toure Regional and Referral HIV clinic.Methodology: We retrospectively analyzed data for four years between 2004 and 2008 from the Sekou Toure HIV clinic database. We included all patients aged 18 and above who were eligible to commence ART. All pregnant women and patients being transferred in or out of the centre were excluded from this study. The statistical data analysis was performed using STATA program, version 14 (College Station, Texas).Results: We analyzed 726 patients, and among them 487 (67.2%) were females. The median age was 38 (IQR= 33-44) years.. The majority of these patients (58%) were in advanced clinical HIV stages (III and IV) with low baseline CD4 cell count (118cells/μl [IQR 46 200]. Tuberculosis was the leading opportunistic infection (OI) in over 80% of patients who had at least one OI at enrolment.Conclusion and recommendation: This study is important, as it has established the baseline data for further research and follow-up of these patients especially with the current improvement of Care and Treatment services in the country as compared to the previous time.Keywords: Clinical Epidemiological Profile HIV Tanzania

Background: Guidelines for the treatment of HIV recommend the use of immunological and clinical criteria for treatment monitoring in resource limited settings. Data on the magnitude of immunological treatment failure in sub-Saharan Africa is scarce. This study aimed at assessing the magnitude and factors associated with immunological failure among HIV infected patients on HAART.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at Bugando Medical centre HIV care and treatment centre between February-July 2011, involving HIV-infected patients on first line ART for at least one year. Patients with concurrent infections and critically ill were excluded. A designed questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and clinical data of patients. Continuous variables were summarized by median and interquartile ranges (IQRs) and categorical variables were summarized by frequency and percentage. Logistic regression was used to find the predictors of immunological failure.Results: A total of 274 participants were enrolled for this study. The median duration on ART was 26 months (IQR 12-45). Majority of the participants were female (65.7%); the baseline CD4 count was 139.5 cells/ul (IQR 60-210). Most of the study participants (47.8%) presented with WHO clinical stage 3 at the time of enrollment to the clinic. Out of the 274 study participants, 57% fulfilled the criteria for immunological failure. WHO clinical stage 3 or 4 at ART initiation (p

Pulmonary hamartomas are the most common benign tumors of the lung. They are usually diagnosed incidentally while evaluating for other conditions. These tumors have been shown to be uncommon below the age of 25 years. We report a case of a 16-year-old male who presented with chronic chest pain and was histologically confirmed to have pulmonary hamartoma. The tumor was successfully resected. This is the first case of hamartoma to be reported in our country, and the atypical age at presentation together with the tumor’s position makes it more unique. In conclusion, although very rare, pulmonary hamartomas can occur in young age with the central location. Clinically, the presentation is usually non-specific and the diagnosis is mostly incidental while investigating other conditions. There is a need to increase awareness among clinicians on hamartomas to improve early treatment for this rare disease in the adolescents.