Over the past decade, the world has witnessed unprecedented scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) which has saved the lives of tens of millions of people. As of December 2019, 25.4 million people out of an estimated 38 million people living with HIV were receiving ART globally.
Increased use of ART has, not unexpectedly, been accompanied by the emergence of some degree of HIV drug resistance, the levels of which have steadily increased in recent years.
HIV drug resistance can jeopardize the efficacy of antiretroviral drugs used for both HIV treatment and prevention of the infection and is associated with an increased number of HIV infections and HIV-associated morbidity and mortality.
Combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR), including resistance to HIV medicines, is a global priority that demands coordinated action across all government sectors and levels of society.
The Global Action Plan on HIV drug resistance 2017–2021, aligned with WHO’s global action plan on antimicrobial resistance, defines key actions for country and global stakeholders to prevent, monitor and respond to HIV drug resistance and to accelerate progress towards achieving the global targets for HIV epidemic control by 2030.
The key actions are:
- Prevention and response: implement high-impact interventions to prevent and respond to HIV drug resistance.
- Monitoring and surveillance: obtain quality data on HIV drug resistance and HIV service delivery from periodic surveys, while expanding routine viral load and HIV drug resistance testing.
- Research and innovation: encourage relevant and innovative research which will have the greatest public health impact in minimizing HIV drug resistance.
- Laboratory capacity: support and expand use of viral load testing and build capacity to monitor HIV drug resistance.
- Governance and enabling mechanisms: ensure country ownership, coordinated action, advocacy and sustainable funding are in place to support action on HIV drug resistance.
The webinar "Addressing HIV drug resistance to protect the effectiveness of HIV treatment" was held on 20 November 2020 in celebration of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2020.
The webinar covered WHO’s strategy to monitor and response to HIV drug resistance, latest global epidemiological data, new surveillance methods, and most recent data on resistance to new ARV medicines used for HIV treatment and prophylaxis.
Speakers:
- Meg Doherty, Director, Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, World Health Organization
- Silvia Bertagnolio, Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, World Health Organization
- Seth Inzaule, African CDC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Michael Jordan, Stewart B Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, Tufts University, USA
- Daniel Kuritzkes, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA
- John Mellors, University of Pittsburgh, USA
- A 360 degree view point video from civil society, academia, implementing partners, and funders