Prevalence of primary antiretroviral resistance: trends in Korea

Primary drug resistance is an emerging problem in HIV infections. We have investigated the current prevalence of primary resistance in Korea and compared it with previous data. Drug-naive HIV patients attending the outpatient clinic of Seoul National University Hospital between April and August 2006 were enrolled. A medical interview and a genotypic resistance test were performed for each patient. The International AIDS Society-USA Panel consensus statement issued in 2006 was used to define resistance mutations. Eighty-one drug-naive HIV patients were enrolled. Two (2.5%) were infected with primary drug-resistant virus: M41L and K103N, respectively. In our previous study, conducted between 1998 and 2002, three (6%) of 50 subjects harbored resistant viruses. Thus the frequency of primary resistance was lower in the present sample than in the earlier one, though the difference is not statistically significant (p = 0.37). In view of our findings, routine antiretroviral resistance tests for drug-naive HIV patients are not obligatory in Korea.