A study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), has found that close to 30% of HIV positive people, who are virally unsuppressed, are resistant to antiretroviral drugs.
These are people in whom the disease can be detected.
Some of the respondents are resistant to one and others to two drugs on the first set of ARV’s used in South Africa.
These are some of the findings of the 5th South African National HIV Prevalence, Incidence, Behaviour and Communication Survey.
HSRC’s doctor Sizulu Moyo says, “We found drug resistance mutations in more than 25 percent of virally unsuppressed people living with HIV in SA. Very high proportions of HIV infected people that are no longer in care had resistance. There were lower levels of resistance amongst people who were on second line drugs – it was about 0.2% and we found no significant difference in this analysis by sex, age and by locality type.”
Click below for related videos….
