Does Repeated Use of Single-dose Nevirapine Increase Resistance?
In a small study in the August 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, Flys et al. report that repeated use of single-dose (SD) nevirapine (NVP) to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV does not appear to influence NVP resistance. Researchers in Uganda compared the emergence and persistence of NVP-resistant HIV strains in 57 women who had not received SD NVP in a prior pregnancy to 34 pregnant women who had. NVP resistance was studied in samples collected from these two groups of women and their 17 HIV-infected infants at fixed times after SD NVP administration. The authors found no significant difference in the proportion of women in whom NVP resistance was detected, the types of resistance mutations, or the frequency and level of the K103N resistance mutation at six weeks or six months post partum. Infants born to SD NVP-naïve and SD NVP-experienced women also had similar proportions of NVP resistance. The small sample sizes in this study limited the power to detect sig
