HIV-1 pol gene polymorphism and antiretroviral resistance mutations in drug-naive pregnant women in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

A recent demographic and health survey was performed in Cameroon in 2004 that showed an HIV-1 seroprevalence rate of 5.5% in the general population. In Yaounde the capital city of Cameroon HIV-1 prevalence is as high as 10% among pregnant women attending antenatal centers. Since the year 2000 a public health pilot program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission started providing a single dose of the nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitor nevirapine (NVP) to pregnant women who were diagnosed as HIV-1 positive in a maternity ward in Yaounde. This program is now scaled to at least 60% of health districts of the country. One of the main portals of antiretroviral (ARV) entry in Cameroon is via the HIV-1 prevention of mother-to-child transmission program. To date no information is available on ARV resistance in this sentinel population. The present study aimed to investigate whether genetic polymorphisms were present in RT and protease (PR) of HIV-1 genes at positions affecting the susceptibility to ARV and to evaluate baseline drug resistance among HIV-1-infected pregnant women naive to NVP in Yaounde Cameroon where HIV-1 non-B subtypes predominate. (excerpt)