HIV-1 drug resistance among people living with HIV receiving dolutegravir-based anti-retroviral regimens in Uganda: a national laboratory-based survey using remnant viral load samples, 2022

Background and objectives: Uganda adopted dolutegravir as its preferred HIV treatment regimen in the national guidelines for treatment of HIV and AIDS in 2018. We conducted a survey to estimate dolutegravir resistance 4 years post-dolutegravir introduction in routine clinical settings. This was a cross-sectional survey to estimate the prevalence of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) to dolutegravir among children and adults with viral non-suppression (VNS; ≥1000 copies/mL) receiving dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy for at least 9 months.

Methods: We used remnant specimens from routine viral load monitoring stored at Central Public Health Laboratories during February–April 2022. Genotyping of the protease, reverse transcriptase and integrase regions of the HIV-1 pol gene was done using Thermo Fisher® kits and analysed using the Stanford HIVDR database. Weighted prevalences of HIVDR with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated for adults (≥15 years) and children (0–14 years).

Results: We randomly selected 857 specimens including 457 from adults and 400 from children for HIVDR testing from 3578 eligible specimens collected during February–April 2022. Five hundred and eleven (59.6%) were successfully genotyped in the integrase region. Intermediate- to high-level dolutegravir HIVDR prevalence was 3.9% (CI: 0.7, 7.1) for adults and 6.6% (CI: 3.5, 9.6) for children.

Conclusion: HIVDR to dolutegravir was uncommon but present among both children and adults with VNS after 9 months or more of exposure to dolutegravir. Additional longitudinal outcomes data are needed to determine if adherence counselling for patients with VNS on dolutegravir regimens might improve outcomes.