Bangalore: The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, infection is draining the global public health systems, has infected 2.7 million people and caused two million deaths in 2008, but things could get even worse, warn scientists—the emergence of a wave of drug-resistant strains of the virus could hinder efforts to control the pandemic.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
Using a complex network model that takes into account single-, double-, and triple-resistant strains of the virus, a team of US researchers report in Friday’s Science that there’s a threat to global public health from strains of HIV that are resistant to traditional antiretroviral treatments.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
This model, they say, can be used to predict drug resistance in any place where individuals are being treated with antiretrovirals (ARVs) for HIV infection, including India, where even the second line of ARVs are now part of the national AIDS control programme.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
This is a very “novel” study that discusses dynamics of transmission of the drug-resistant HIV strains based on the data collected in San Francisco among men having sex with men, says Ramesh Paranjape, director of the National AIDS Research Institute in Pune.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
While using HIV prevalence and resistance data from San Francisco, the model accurately reproduced the documented evolution of transmitted resistance in the city over the past two decades. It showed, surprisingly, that many of the drug-resistant strains which have evolved over the past 10 years in San Francisco are much more transmissible than has been previously thought.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
The research also reveals that while effective treatment has kept the transmission of resistant HIV under 15% in San Francisco, a full 60% of the resistant HIV strains in the city are capable of causing self-sustaining epidemics.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
Recalibration of the model for a new region would require prevalence and treatment data such as the type and duration of the drugs being used, their effectiveness in suppressing viral load and reducing mortality, rates of drug resistance, and the fraction of people needing the drug who actually take it.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit