Transmitted Drug Resistance: Another Compelling Reason to Link HIV-Infected Patients to Care and Start Treatment

Transmitted drug resistance (TDR) limits the range of antiretroviral therapy (ART) options available to patients with newly diagnosed HIV infection. Risk for infection with an HIV strain resistant to one or more ART agents ranges from 4% to 22%, depending on study population and geographic location. Possible sources of TDR include patients on treatment who are not virologically suppressed and patients not on treatment who are infected with a resistant strain of HIV. Molecular epidemiology tools — particularly when used to study a well-characterized, comprehensive cohort of HIV-infected patients such as the one followed in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) — can help identify sources of TDR. Now, investigators have matched data from the SHCS…