Reverse transcriptase inhibitors drug resistance mutations in drug-naive HIV type 1 positive Kenyans.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the extent of HIV-1 drug resistance among drug naive Kenyan individuals. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Kenya Medical Research Institute HIV laboratory Nairobi, Kenya. SUBJECTS A total of seventy eight HIV-1 positive drug naive subjects randomised from five Kenyan provincial hospitals between April and June 2004. RESULTS A major non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase (NNRTI) an associated mutation was found in one patient (1.3%). NNRTI associated resistance mutations were present at amino acid codon sites G98A (2.56%); K103E (1.3%) and L100F (3.57%) prevalences. Baseline resistance may compromise the response to standard NNRTI-based first-line ART in 1.3 % of the study subjects. CONCLUSION This indicates in general, that drug resistance among HIV-1 positive drug naive individual is at low thresholds (1.3%) but the problem could be more serious than reported here. Continuous resistance monitoring is therefore warranted to maintain individual and population-level ART effectiveness.