Identification of Drug Resistant Mutations among HIV-1 infected Individuals in Pakistani population

Abstract

According to UNAIDS 38.4 million individuals infected with HIV all over the globe in 2021 and worldwide AIDS epidemic is still growing. As a result, Pakistan, which has one of Asia's highest HIV prevalence estimates, is seeing a fast shift in HIV transmission (from "low prevalence, high risk" to "concentrated" HIV pandemic status). Only 17,149 of the country's 165 000 HIV-infected individuals were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ARVs) as of 2019. Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) have been smuggled throughout the nation due to inadequate governance and insufficient management, making them available to nearly anybody without a prescription. HIV Drug Resistance and the formation of Drug Resistant Viral Isolates have emerged from self-medication because of related stereotyping, drug overdose, and poor medication management. Transmitted Drug Resistance related mutations, also known as primary mutations, is a serious kind of drug resistance. Inability to screen populations for these basic alterations nearly always leads to the development of additional drug-resistant variants. Because no trustworthy statistics on this topic has yet been obtained or published, the primary goal of this project is to test HIV-infected Pakistani individuals for antiretroviral treatment resistance mutations.