Resistance profiles to antiretroviral drugs in HIV-1 drug-naive patients in Argentina

The drug resistance profile of treatment-naive HIV-infected individuals liv ing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was studied. Samples taken from 94 drug-nai ve individuals with established HIV infection and 13 patients with primary HIV infection were assessed by nucleotide sequencing and LiPA. The prevalen ce of drug-associated primary mutations in individuals with established inf ection was very low. In the viral protease region, 1/86 (1.2%) individuals carried the D30N mutation, whereas 1/85 (1.2%) had the M41L mutation in the reverse transcriptase (RT) region. Secondary mutations in both the proteas e and RT regions were found in almost 90% of the individuals. In individual s with primary infection, primary mutations were detected in 2/13 (15.4%) p atients, one of them carrying M461 mutation in the protease while the other patient had a mutation at codon 184 of the RT. In accordance with current drug resistance testing guidelines, the results of this study suggest that susceptibility tests need not be performed at this time prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy in HIV-l-infected people in Argentina. However, the public health implications of this subject warrant follow-up studies th at will examine a larger number of drug-naive patients, not only in Buenos Aires but also in other major Argentinian cities and in rural areas.