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PharmAccess participated in a global collaborative study that has indicated that over the past decade HIV- drug resistance is on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings of the study are published in the Lancet this week.
An international group of experts, among whom Raph Hamers from PharmAccess, performed a meta-analysis on transmitted HIV drug resistance (persons infected with a drug-resistant virus strain), including data on more than 26,000 untreated HIV-infected persons from 42 resource-limited countries. The analyses showed that drug resistant HIV has increased in the context of growing coverage and use of antiretroviral drugs. The most rapid increase in drug resistance occurred in East Africa, at 29% per year. In Southern Africa, it was 14% per year.
The article is based on a systematic search for studies and conference abstracts published between January 2001 and July 2011, and included additional data from the WHO HIV drug resistance surveillance programme. The prevalence of drug-resistance mutations in untreated individuals were assessed with respect to time since rollout in a series of random-effects meta-regression models. The PharmAccess African Studies to Evaluate Resistance (PASER) accounted for 9% overall and 17% of patients from sub-Saharan Africa that were included in the meta-analysis.
The publication was picked up by BBC news who published an article on it. Read the article here.
For the publication in the Lancet read here:http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61038-1/fulltext#article_upsell
