Did you know...that HIV drug resistance forms a major threat to the successful treatment of HIV/AIDS. In less than a decade the international commitment to fight HIV/AIDS has lead to the incredible achievement that today more than 3 million people in Africa are on life-saving HIV-treatment. However, this success also involves a realistic risk for development of HIV-drug resistance in Africa.

People become resistant to their lifesaving drugs. Unfortunately, drug resistance is a negative side-effect of widespread medication use. The disastrous effects can be seen in the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and other serious illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea. It is therefore not hard to predict that the development of HIV-drug resistance is looming.

There is, however, a knowledge gap on how and at what speed this development will proceed. Hardly any research or data collection on HIV-drug resistance in Africa has been performed. For this reason the PharmAccess African Studies to Evaluate Resistance (PASER) program, which started in 2006, has set up a network of clinics, laboratories and research centres in Africa with the aim of strengthening systems for the coordinated monitoring of HIV-drug resistance. The first PASER results indicate that up to 7% of the PASER participants initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) show signs of baseline resistance and over 24% in with a history of previous antiretroviral use. Which is a worrying percentage and implies that continued vigilance is warranted.