Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - April 04, 2008
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
The Disease Control Department made a study of HIV-positive people who have taken the medicine for six months, and found 12% had developed resistance to GPO-VIR, up from 10.5% in 2006.
Somchai Pinyapornpanich, Disease Control Department deputy director-general, said drug resistance had increased since the universal healthcare scheme began providing free drugs to HIV-positive patients listed under the programme.
Of the 500,000 people living with HIV/Aids in Thailand, 100,000 were dependent on Aids drugs under the anti-retroviral treatment programme, he said.
HIV-positive people with a CD4 count of less than 200, or a viral load of about 1000-1500, are required to take the medication.
However, the study found that the viral load level in patients' blood did not reduce after taking medication during the study period.
The most likely explanation for drug resistance is that the virus is adapting to stay alive, he said.
Symptoms of drug resistance could also occur in HIV-positive people who did not take the medication as recommended, or those depending on the anti-retroviral treatment programme for over five years, he said.
Dr Somchai said the problem was not caused by the quality of the locally-made Aids drug, GPO-VIR.
It costs the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation 1,200 baht to make a monthly dose of the generic drug for just one patient, which is supposed to be cheap.
Those who develop resistance to GPO-VIR have to take Effavirenz or Lopinavir/Ritonavir as an alternative.
The viral load level of HIV-positive people is checked every six to 12 months after taking the medication.
Dr Somchai said he would talk to people running the medical programme for HIV/Aids patients under the universal healthcare scheme about whether to set aside a fund for viral load checks.
He believed a screening programme could help monitor the effect of Aids drugs.
It could also help curb drug resistance among patients living with HIV/Aids.
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