HIV drug resistance and HIV transmission risk factors among newly diagnosed individuals in Southwest China

BACKGROUND: The widespread use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has resulted in the development of transmitted drug resistance (TDR), which reduces ART efficacy. We explored TDR prevalence and its associated risk factors in newly diagnosed individuals in Guangxi. METHODS: We enrolled 1324 participants who were newly diagnosed with HIV-1 and had not received ART at voluntary counselling and testing centres (VCT) in Guangxi, China, who had not received ART. Phylogenetic relationship, transmission cluster, and genotypic drug resistance analyses were performed using HIV-1 pol sequences. We analysed the association of demographic and virological factors with TDR. RESULTS: In total, 1151 sequences were sequenced successfully, of which 83 (7.21%) showed evidence of TDR. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that there was significant difference between the prevalence of TDR and unmarried status (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 2.41, 95% CI: 1.23–4.71), and CRF08_BC subtype (aOR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.13–3.64). Most cases of TDR were related to resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (4.87%) and V179E was the most common mutation detected. We identified a total of 119 HIV transmission clusters (n = 585, 50.8%), of which 18 (15.1%) clusters showed evidence of TDR (36, 41.86%). Three clusters were identified that included drug-resistant individuals having a transmission relationship with each other. The following parameters were associated with TDR transmission risk: Unmarried status, educational level of junior high school or below, and CRF08_BC subtype may be a risk of the transmission of TDR. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that moderate TDR prevalence and highlighted the importance of continuous TDR monitoring and designing of strategies for TDR mitigation.