[A cross-sectional study on the prevalence of HIV drug resistance in patients receiving antiretroviral treatment in Shenqiu county, Henan province].

Objective: To understand the prevalence of drug resistance in AIDS patients who had been receiving HAART in a long run, in Shenqiu county, Henan province.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 120 HIV infected patients who began receiving ART (antiretroviral therapy) in 2003. Viral loads and CD(4)(+) T cells counts were measured, and In-house drug resistance test was performed in VL > 1000 copies/ml patients.

Results: 114 cases out of 120 patients had complete viral load data. Among them, 33 cases having viral loads less than 50 copies/ml, and the remaining viral loads showed an average of lg (4.09 ± 1.10) copies/ml. The average of CD(4)(+) T cell counts was (377 ± 218) cells/ml, with 64 (53.3%) cases showing their CD(4)(+) T cell counts higher than 350 cells/ml. In 67 patients, 58 of them showed genotypic resistance, and 40 cases showed reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs) resistance. The ratios of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) resistance were 53.4% (31/58) and 67.2% (39/58), respectively. There were no differences of drug resistance ratio in the three treatment programs. The highest drug resistance rates in NRTIs and NNRTIs were zidovudine, lamivudine, nevirapine. However, protease inhibitors (PIs) resistance variants were not found.

Conclusion: The prevalence of drug-resistant strains seemed to be high in Shenqiu country, Henan province. Long-term follow-up monitoring strategy should be developed to optimize the timely treatment programs.