Research on the treatment effects and drug resistances of long-term second-line antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected patients from Henan Province in China

Background HIV/AIDS patients who fail to respond to first-line treatment protocols are switched to second-line ART. Identifying factors that influence effective second-line treatment can improve utilization of limited medical resources. We investigated the efficacy of long-term second-line anti-retroviral therapy (ART) after first-line virologic failure as well as the impact of non-nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), and protease inhibitor (PI) resistance mutations and medication adherence on ineffective viral suppression.