Global HIV Programme
The WHO Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes leads the development and implementation of the global health sector strategy on the elimination of HIV as a public health threat.
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Surveillance of acquired HIV drug resistance in populations receiving ART

The surveillance of acquired HIV drug resistance provides critical information to assess the performance of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes in achieving viral load suppression targets. Surveillance data also describe resistance patterns in populations receiving ART, which inform the selection of optimal ART regimens.

WHO recommends 3 survey methods to monitor the prevalence of acquired HIV drug resistance:

  1. nationally representative laboratory-based method;
  2. nationally representative clinic-based method; and
  3. sentinel laboratory-based method.

Both nationally representative methods generate estimates of acquired HIV drug resistance among people with viral non-suppression (≥1000 copies/ml) taking dolutegravir-containing and non-dolutegravir-containing ART. The sentinel method focuses on HIV resistance to dolutegravir among individuals receiving dolutegravir-containing ART with confirmed viral non-suppression.

Concept notes and toolkits are available below for each survey method.

WHO's recommended survey methods

Also available in Spanish

Laboratory-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance using remnant viral load specimens

Laboratory-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance using remnant viral load specimens
1 April 2021

Laboratory-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance using remnant viral load...

WHO’s laboratory-based acquired drug resistance survey method yields robust estimates of acquired HIV drug resistance in adults, children and adolescents...
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Toolkit: implementation of the laboratory-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance using remnant viral load specimens

Editable generic protocol

For countries with viral load coverage ≥60% and required survey variables availability ≥80%

English (MS Word - 100 kB)
Spanish (MS Word - 105 kB)

 

For countries with viral load coverage ≥60% but availability of required survey variables <80%

English (MS Word - 235 kB)

Clinic-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance

Clinic-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance
20 September 2021

Clinic-based survey of acquired HIV drug resistance
WHO’s antiretroviral treatment (ART) clinic-based acquired drug resistance survey method yields robust estimates of HIV viral suppression and acquired...
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Sentinel surveys of acquired HIV resistance to dolutegravir among people receiving dolutegravir-containing antiretroviral therapy

Overview video

Also available in French and Spanish

Toolkit: implementation of the sentinel survey of acquired HIV drug resistance  

Template to enter and upload the data

HIV drug resistance surveillance database

Stata code for data analysis

Editable generic protocol

English (MS Word - 119 KB)
Spanish (MS Word - 152 KB)

 

WHO regularly produces a global report on HIV drug resistance threats, prevalence and trends, based on information shared by countries. Click here to see the reports.