The trend of transmitted drug resistance in newly diagnosed antiretroviral-naive HIV/AIDS patients during 1999-2012 in South Korea.

BACKGROUND

The use of antiretroviral drugs has reduced the mortality and morbidity of patients with HIV/AIDS. More than 20 antiretroviral drugs have been used in patients with HIV/AIDS since zidovudine was first introduced in 1991 in South Korea.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate and estimate the annual prevalence of transmitted drug resistance and drug-resistant variants of HIV-1 in newly diagnosed antiretroviral-naive patients in South Korea during 1999-2012.

STUDY DESIGN

Plasma specimens were collected from 928 antiretroviral-naive patients during 1999-2012. Mutations in the protease and reverse transcriptase sections of the HIV-1 pol gene were identified using the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database (Stanford DB).

RESULTS

Among 928 HIV-1 isolates from antiretroviral-naive patients, 45 (4.8%) showed 'intermediate' or 'resistant' drug resistance. The predicted prevalence of drug resistance among isolates was 2.2%, 2.7%, and 0.3% for resistance to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, and protease inhibitors, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

There was no significant increase in the prevalence of drug resistance among antiretroviral-naive patients infected with HIV-1 during 1999-2012 in South Korea, although there was a slight increase during 2009-2012. The emergence of drug-resistant variants will continue to be monitored by national surveys.