British HIV patients show increasing drug resistance

LONDON (Reuters) – People infected with the HIV virus in
Britain have one of the highest levels of drug resistance in
the world, and the rate is increasing, researchers said on
Friday.

The trend suggests a wave of infections from a drug
resistant strain of the virus may be on the way, they said in a
study published in the British Medical Journal.

The report by the UK Group on Transmitted HIV Drug
Resistance warned that the reduction in effective drugs to
treat patients represented “a major clinical and public health
problem.”

Their research was based on 2,357 HIV positive patients
between 1996 and 2003.

They found that 335 patients showed some degree of
resistance to one or more of the antiretroviral drugs used to
fight the HIV virus, which can lead to AIDS.

Most, 257 of them, were resistant to drugs in one class
only, 44 were resistant to drugs within two classes and 34 were
resistant to drugs in the three most commonly used drug
classes.

The study said this was equivalent to a 14 percent rate of
resistance over the whole time period, rising to 19 percent for
the most recent year of the study, 2002-3.

This is higher than in other industrialized countries.

Drug resistance is estimated at 7 percent among chronically
infected HIV patients in the United States, with a 6 percent
resistance in France and 10 percent elsewhere in Europe.