International Journal of Drug Research and Technology

DRUG RESISTANCE MAY ACCELERATE AN HIV EPIDEMIC AS SHOWN BY THE NESTED MODEL

Abstract

Stephen Patterson*

The most effective strategy for controlling the HIV epidemic is the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the emergence of drug-resistant strains may diminish ART's potential advantages. Individually, the viral dynamics of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains may play a significant role in the development and spread of drug resistance in a population. Using a nested model that connects both dynamical levels, we investigate how an infected person's viral dynamics affect the HIV epidemic's dynamics. An epidemiological model of HIV incorporates a time-dependent transmission rate between hosts that receives feedback from a model of two-strain virus dynamics within a host. Model parameters like the time at which ART is initiated, the percentage of cases treated, and the likelihood that a patient develops drug resistance have the greatest impact on total infection and the prevalence of drug resistance, according to our analysis of the model's resulting dynamics.