WHO, progress against HIV but the resistance worries

(ANSA) - ROME, NOVEMBER 25 - The situation of the fight against HIV in the world is improving, with an increasing number of patients treated and with ever higher infection control rates; however, the phenomenon of drug resistance is worrying.

This is the picture that traces the "Hiv Drug Resistance" report published by the World Health Organization.

    As of December 2020, 27.5 million people with HIV worldwide were being treated with antiretroviral therapy, whose availability, according to the WHO report, "has increased at an earlier rate over the past decade." Despite this, about 30% of the 37.7 million people who have contracted the infection are still not treated properly. In addition to access to drugs, the number of countries in which patients are able to obtain good control of the infection is also growing: out of a sample of 45 countries among those with the highest prevalence of HIV monitored by the WHO, today 80% succeed to obtain sufficient levels of suppression of the viral load; only 4 years ago 33% succeeded. "Achieving high levels of viral suppression in populations taking antiretroviral therapy prevents HIV transmission, associated morbidity and mortality, and prevents the onset of resistance to HIV drugs, "the report reads.

    On the other hand, the situation is worsening as regards resistance to drugs.

The number of countries in which the guard threshold of 10% of patients no longer responding to traditional first-line drugs (non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors) and who for WHO should immediately switch to the use of other medicines with a reduced susceptibility to the phenomenon of resistance.

(HANDLE).