The incidence rate of HIV type-1 drug resistance in patients on antiretroviral therapy: a nationwide population-based Danish cohort study 1999-2005

BACKGROUND: Newer antiretroviral treatment regimens for HIV carry a lower risk of inducing drug resistance mutations. We estimated changes in incidence rates (IRs) of new mutations in HIV-infected individuals receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

METHODS: Population-based data were obtained from the Danish HIV Cohort Study and the Danish HIV Sequence Database. We included treatment-naive patients initiating HAART after December 1997 and computed time to first drug resistance mutation, identified as new mutations detected within 1 year after a 60-day period of treatment failure (HIV RNA>1,000 copies/ml). We estimated annual IRs of new resistance mutations towards nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), non-NRTIs (NNRTIs) and protease inhibitors (PI), and of new specific resistance mutations.

RESULTS: A total of 1,829 individuals were observed for 7,294 person-years at risk (PYR). The IR of NRTI resistance decreased from 13.1 per 1,000 PYR (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.9-35.0) in 1999 to 3.7 (1.9-7.2) in 2004-2005 (test for trend P=0.024). The IR of NNRTI resistance decreased from 15.4 (2.2-109.6) in 1999 to 7.9 (4.6-13.6) in 2004-2005 (P=0.077). The IR of PI resistance decreased from 7.5 (1.4-21.8) in 1999 to 2.9 (0.7-11.4) in 2002-2003 (P=0.148). The IRs were low for specific resistance mutations, except for M184V (IR 5.6 [4.0-7.9]) and K103N (IR 8.2 [5.6-12.0]).

CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of acquired drug resistance has decreased among HIV-infected patients treated with HAART in Denmark during 1999-2005.