The WHO has raised concerns over the growing resistance to HIV drugs.
WHO in the HIV drug resistance report 2017 said the high rate of resistance may water down strides made in treating and preventing the infection.
The report says more than 10 percent of people starting antiretroviral therapy had a strain of HIV that was resistant to some of the most widely used HIV medicines in six of the 11 countries surveyed in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
WHO director general Tedros Ghebreyesus said the resistance was a growing challenge to global health and sustainable development.
“We need to proactively address the rising levels of resistance to HIV drugs if we are to achieve the global target of ending Aids by 2030.”
The 82-page report was compiled by WHO, USA’s CDC and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
WHO has now recommended countries should urgently review their HIV treatment programmes once the threshold of 10 per cent has been reached.
It now wants countries to monitor the quality of their treatment programmes and take action as soon as treatment failure is detected.
WHO says countries must attain and maintain the treatment target of 90 per cent virological suppression in all people receiving ART, gradually adding to the longer-term goal of 95 per cent.
It warned that the increasing trend in HIV drug resistance could lead to more infections and deaths.
Individuals with HIV drug resistance will start to fail therapy and may also transmit drug-resistant viruses to others. The level of HIV in their blood will increase, unless they change to a different treatment regimen.
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