Abstract:
The use of antiretroviral drugs to prolong lives of people living with HIV and AIDS
and in their use in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV is now firmly
established in Sub-Saharan Africa .However, virological failure in management of
HIV-1 infection has been reported to be between 11 to 24 % after 12 months of
treatment; Out of these, acquired or transmitted drug resistance mutations have been
reported at 71% to 90%. HIV-1 subtypes and patterns of drug resistance in HIV infected patients on ART is little known in Burundi. This cross-sectional study was
aimed to characterize HIV subtypes and to determine drug resistance mutations in
HIV-1 infected patients on ART attending Kayanza district hospital, Burundi. Using
purposive sampling technique, 200 participants were recruited. All patients were
ARV experienced based on 2008 Burundi National guidelines, the age distribution
was unimodal and it peaked at 45 years. The 86% were above 18years and female
accounted for 55%. Stratification by religion, 73.5% were Christian-Catholics while
52% were married. On the level of education, 82.5% (n=165) reported completing
primary school while farming as occupation was reported by 65% and 94% reporting
to earn below BIF 200 .Out of 200 patients, 12.5% were on tuberculosis (TB)
medications while 57% had been on antiretroviral therapy for between six to ten
years. U4mL of venous blood was collected from each patient that consented to
participate in the study. Plasma viral loads were quantified using the Abbott m2000rt
system. RT-PCR was done after extraction of nucleic acids from plasma with >1000
copies/mL. Sequencing was done on all amplified samples. Drug resistance was
determined using the Stanford University database. Phylogenetic analyses were done
using the neighbor joining method. From the two hundred patients; 13% (26/200)
had virological failure. This was associated with multiple partners (P =0.016) and
inconsistency in taking medications (p=0.014). Fifteen samples were successfully
sequenced; of these, (12/15) 80% were HIV-1 subtype C, 13% (2/15) were HIV-1
subtype A1 and 7% (1/15) were subtype A. Of the successfully sequenced, 80%
(12/15) recorded at least one mutation (NRTI or NNRTI), while 20% (3/15) did not
carry any Drug Resistance Mutations. The most common drug resistance mutations
were M184V(7/15), M41L(1/15), E44D(1/15), L74I(1/15), L210W(1/15) and
K65R(1/15), K103N(12/15),E138A (/15) and Y188H (1/15). These findings showed
potential gaps in the last 90% of the 90-90-90 WHO target by 2020. More strategies
are needed so as to improve adherence, while drug resistance mutation testing should
be implemented to monitor HIV-1 patients on ART in Burundi