HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

It's clear that the prevalence of MDR HIV has increased as patients have gained more exposure to multiple classes of drug. However, one can get a better picture of MDR virus trends over time by examining the incidence, or new occurrence, of MDR HIV on a year-by-year basis.

A study presented by Belgian researchers was designed to examine trends in the incidence of MDR HIV based on data from 2,373 Portuguese patients. The resistance database used in the analysis covers 22 hospitals in Portugal and contains 3,039 viral isolates that were examined for resistance between July 2001 and June 2006. One genotypic resistance test per patient per year was included in the analysis, and MDR HIV was defined as virus that remained susceptible to no more than one active drug. The drugs enfuvirtide (T-20, Fuzeon), tipranavir (TPV, Aptivus) and TMC114 (darunavir, Prezista) were not considered as potentially active drugs for this analysis, as these drugs were not available at all time points of the study.

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he results showed a striking reduction in the incidence of MDR HIV over time, with odds of the presence of new drug resistance reduced by 20 percent each year. The authors of this study concluded that the reduction in MDR HIV incidence reflects increasing highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) efficacy. In other words, as the drugs for HIV have improved, the chance that patients will experience treatment failure due to the emergence of new resistance has decreased. They also concluded that the development of new drugs with activity against resistant virus may become less important as the incidence of MDR HIV wanes. Instead, the emphasis may shift toward developing drugs with improved tolerability, ease of use, and reduced toxicity.

from TheBodyPro.com