Transmitted HIV-1 drug resistance in a treatment naïve cohort of recently infected individuals from Chennai, India.

A cross sectional study was undertaken to examine the prevalence and pattern of HIV drug resistance mutations among recently HIV-1 infected and antiretroviral therapy-naïve individuals from Chennai, South India. The HIV-1 Pol gene encompassing the Protease and Reverse Transcriptase (RT) regions were analysed from 53 ART -naïve HIV-1 infected individuals using an in-house method for identifying drug resistance mutations by genotyping. The overall prevalence of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) was found to be 11.3% (6/53), which is categorized as moderate level (5.0%-15.0%) of TDR according to the World Health Organization Survey guidelines. Surveillance drug resistance mutations (SDRMs) to Non Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTI) were observed in 8.3% (n=4) of the 48 RT sequences analyzed. No major drug resistance mutations related to the protease and Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTI) class of drugs were identified.