Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of NRTI and NNRTI drug resistance mutations in patients failing NNRTI-based ART in Southern Africa. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a systematic review to identify studies reporting drug resistance mutations among adult people living with HIV (PLWH) who experienced virological failure on first-line NNRTI-based ART in Southern Africa. We used a Bayesian hierarchical meta-regression model to synthesize the evidence on the frequency of eight NRTI- and seven NNRTI-DRMs across different ART regimens, accounting for ART duration and study characteristics. RESULTS: We included 19 study populations, including 2,690 PLWH. Patients failing first-line ART including emtricitabine or lamivudine showed high levels of the M184V/I mutation after 2 years: 75.7% (95% Credibility Interval [CrI] 61.9%-88.9%) if combined with tenofovir, and 72.1% (95% CrI 56.8%-85.9%) with zidovudine. With tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, the prevalence of the K65R mutation was 52.0% (95% CrI 32.5%-76.8%) at 2 years. On efavirenz, K103 was the most prevalent NNRTI resistance mutation (57.2%, 95% CrI 40.9%-80.1%), followed by V106 (46.8%, 95% CrI 31.3%-70.4%). CONCLUSIONS: NRTI/NNRTI drug resistance mutations are common in patients failing first-line ART in Southern Africa. These patients might switch to dolutegravir-based regimen with compromised NRTIs, which could impair the long-term efficacy of ART.