Advancing HIV Drug Resistance Technologies and Strategies: Insights from South Africa's Experience and Future Directions for Resource-Limited Settings.

Monitoring of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) remains critical for ensuring countries attain and sustain the global goals for ending HIV as a public health threat by 2030. On an individual patient level, drug resistance results assist in ensuring unnecessary treatment switches are avoided and subsequent regimens are tailored on a case-by-case basis, should resistance be detected. Although there is a disparity in access to HIVDR testing in high-income countries compared to low- and middle-income countries (LMICS), more LMICs have now included HIVDR testing for individual patient management in some groups of patients.

Resistance is common in paediatric patients failing ART in South Africa.

Background: Minimal data exist on HIV drug resistance patterns and prevalence among paediatric patients failing ART in resource-limited settings. We assessed levels of HIV drug resistance in children with virological failure.

Methods: This cross-sectional study, performed from March 2017 to March 2019 in South Africa, enrolled HIV-positive children aged ≤19 years, receiving ART through public health facilities with recent evidence suggestive of virological failure (at least one viral load ≥1000 copies/mL), across 45 randomly selected high-volume clinics from all nine provinces.

HIV drug resistance profile in South Africa: Findings and implications from the 2017 national HIV household survey.

Background: HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) testing was included in the 2017 South African national HIV household survey. We describe the prevalence of HIVDR by drug class, age, sex and antiretroviral drugs (ARV) status.

Methods: Dried blood were spots tested for HIV, with Viral load (VL), exposure to ARVs and HIVDR testing among those HIV positive.

High levels of HIV drug resistance among adults failing second-line antiretroviral therapy in Namibia.

To support optimal third-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) selection in Namibia, we investigated the prevalence of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) at time of failure of second-line ART. A cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2016 and February 2017. HIV-infected people ≥15 years of age with confirmed virological failure while receiving ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor (PI/r)-based second-line ART were identified at 15 high-volume ART clinics representing over >70% of the total population receiving second-line ART.