Background

Currently, more than 40 million people are living with HIV worldwide, of whom 25 million live in sub-Saharan Africa and more than 8 million across Asia. The introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) in 1996 meant a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. It turned HIV/AIDS from a progressive, devastating and lethal disease to a chronic treatable condition. Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to spread the benefits of HAART to the hardest hit regions. At this moment, in sub-Saharan Africa less than 28% of all who are in immediate need of treatment have access to it. Expanding access to treatment is critical to saving the lives of the 6.6 million people worldwide who are in need of HAART today. 

HIV drug resistance
After all the gains that have been achieved in the fight against HIV, including the development of medications and the expansion of treatment programs – reducing HIV drug resistance is the next challenge that we are facing. HIV drug resistance is the failure of HIV to respond to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). When drug resistance occurs, patients must switch from the first combination of antiretroviral drugs (1st line treatment) to a different combination of drugs, this is called 2nd line HAART.

Enhancing Africa & Asia’s response to AIDS
In order to respond with appropriate strategies, we need to understand the patterns of resistance. The LAASER Program aims to build a network of HIV drug resistance monitoring and surveillance sites in Africa and Asia. Thus, capacity is built for an early warning system for the emergence of HIV resistance in a large number of resource-limited countries both in Asia and Africa. The collaboration between Asia and Africa within the LAASER-program addresses this need, and will create a unique possibility of intercontinental South-South information exchange and learning. With the aim of linking this program to international civil society groups and networks focused on scaling up access to treatment and care, the program further includes a networking and learning forum (Roundtable Process) for civil society organizations.

 

  

HIV drug resistance can occur when:

• HAART is not supported by adequate medical or other infrastructure 
• The therapy is not accompanied by continuous training and peasures to improve adherence 
 

HIV drug resistance has some major disadvantages:

• It reduces further treatment options
• It may raise medication costs 6-10 times
• 2nd line drugs are not available in many of the hardest hit countries