Abstract
To understand the predominant HIV subtype and drug-resistant viruses in northwest Ethiopia, isolates from 92 antiretroviral drug-naive HIV-1-infected tuberculosis patients were analyzed. Of these patients, 90 (97.8%) were found to be infected with viral subtype C. Other isolates had subtype A (1.1%) and subtype D (1.1%). No primary mutations were associated with protease inhibitor drug resistance. One case (1.1%) had the reverse-transcriptase mutation, V75I. Two patients (2.2%) had the G190A mutation, which confers resistance to the nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, nevirapine. Our study demonstrates that subtype C is the major HIV-1 subtype in northwest Ethiopia. Our results also reveal that the population in the study area had been exposed to antiretrovirals and that treatment-naive patients had drug resistance mutations. Thus, our results emphasize the need for routine drug resistance monitoring in northwest Ethiopia.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.