Background: The use of antiretroviral treatment 
containing Zidovudine in HIV infected patients is 
associated with hematological toxicity to varying degrees 
of cytopenia particularly megaloblastic anemia. However, 
there is scarcity of data which assesses prevalence of AZT 
induced megaloblastic anemia among HIV patients taking 
ART in Ethiopia. 
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the 
prevalence of Zidovudine induced megaloblastic anemia in 
HIV/AIDS patients taking ART at University of Gondar 
Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. 
Method: A retrospective study was conducted among 
HIV/AIDS patients who were attending Gondar University 
Hospital between January 2012 and February 2013. Data 
was collected from 319 patients’ chart and statistical 
analysis was done on SPSS version 20. 
Result: Prevalence of AZT induced anemia was 11.3% at 
the 6 month of AZT based treatment. Most of them (n = 
29, 80.6%), developed macrocytic anemia. Age shows 
significant association with the incidence of anemia (P = 
0.042) while sex, baseline CD4 cell count, presence of 
opportunistic infection, HIV clinical stage and baseline 
hemoglobin were not associated. 

Conclusion: This study showed high prevalence of 
macrocytic anemia after 6th months of treatment with AZT 
based ART.