The Success Of HIV Treatment Is Increasing The Risk Of Drug-Resistance

But scientists are beginning to detect a disturbing new trend: The rise of drug-resistant HIV strains, especially in countries such as Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa.

Like tuberculosis and other diseases, drug resistant HIV strains emerge in part because a person doesn’t take the proper dose of drugs at the right time every day. In poor regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, this is more likely to happen, not because of a lack of will on the part of the patient, but because there are so few health clinics, or political and economic instability could make it exceedingly difficult to access life-saving treatment on time.

A World Health Organization report from July examined data from more than 12,000 clinics in 59 countries and found that on average, about 20 percent of people with HIV simply drop out of patient records one year after beginning ART treatment. About 73 percent of patients don’t maintain their treatment and 36 percent of clinics experienced drug stock-outs — when a pharmacy simply runs out of drugs." (Photo: ibmphoto24/flickr)