Prevalence of genotypic resistance to antiretroviral drugs in HIV-positive patients in Tegucigalpa

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of HIV drug-resistance in treated and untreated patients. One-hundred samples of HIV-positive patients of Tegucigalpa were analyzed, 50 samples from patients prior to antiretroviral therapy and 50 samples from patients on antiretroviral therapy with treatment failure.

HIV-1 pol sequences were generated to determine the presence of drug resistance mutations using the Stanford calibrated population resistance tool according to the WHO Surveillance Drug Resistance Mutations for untreated patients and the Stanford Database list of mutations for treated patients.

The results shows that drug-resistance mutation prevalence in patients before treatment initiation was 19 % [IC 95 %: 9-33%], 8.3 % for NRTI, 12.5 % for NNRTI and 6.25 % for PI; the most common mutation founded were: M184V, K103N, M46I. The prevalence of drug-resistance mutations in patients on therapy was 82 % [IC 95 %:60-90%], 58 % for NRTI, 74 % for NNRTI, and 22 % for PI.

In conclusions, we observed a significance increase in the prevalence of drug-resistance mutations in untreated patients compared with previous studies, which is of great concern because it limits the effectiveness of first-line treatment. Although the prevalence of acquired resistance in patients with therapeutic failure remains slightly constant remains high, requiring treatment changes to second or third line in these patients, causing an economic impact on public health.

Revista Ciencia y Tecnología, N° 15, December 2014: 147-160