Botswana faces imported HIV resistance crisis

Botswana’s initial decision to exclude migrants from free government-run health services, which it later revoked, appears to have backfired with the emergence of HIV mutations that are drug-resistant (resistant) to antiretroviral therapy (ART). ), the Sunday Standard reported in February. 25.

Botswana faces a resistance crisis to imported HIV drugs “that will worsen the local HIV epidemic”, according to a new study.

In a study by local scientists and their international colleagues titled “High prevalence of pre-treatment drug resistance mutations and acquired drug resistance mutations in HIV-1 among non-citizens living with HIV in Botswana” , non-citizens were found to have high rates of HIV mutations leading to pre-treatment viral resistance and acquired viral resistance in ART-naïve people in Botswana.

Source: Rossa Primavera