HIV RESISTANCE TESTING OVERVIEW
HIV continues to be a global public health challenge despite great progress in the testing, diagnosis, treatment and management of the disease. With an uncanny ability to mutate, it adapts and survives; eluding notable eradication efforts from current and new therapies.[1]
Virco has a long history of providing HIV resistance testing to clinicians and the HIV/AIDS research community. The company maintains a sizable HIV database with approximately 61,000 matching genotype/phenotype pairs (current as of October 2011). The goal of interpreting resistance testing data is to help clinicians:
- Gain insights and information on viral resistance
- Contribute information for discerning the optimal treatment or combination of therapies, based on resistance testing for people living with HIV/AIDS
[1]World Health Organization. Universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. Available at: http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/universalaccess/en/index.html. Accessed September 14, 2011.
Why virco®TYPE HIV-1 for resistance testing?
Virco's goal is to provide physicians and people living with HIV/AIDS with accurate, reliable and affordable information about the individual's virus and its susceptibility or resistance to antiretroviral drugs. Our purpose is to help clinicians make informed decisions about the optimal treatment strategy for each individual.
What is virco®TYPE HIV-1
The virco®TYPE HIV-1 software is intended for use in conjunction with HIV?1 genotyping assays, to calculate drug resistance/susceptibility as an aid in monitoring and treating HIV infection. Specifically, virco®TYPE HIV-1 calculates quantitative levels of phenotypic susceptibility from the HIV genomic sequences corresponding to the HIV protease gene and part of the reverse transcriptase gene.
How do I get virco®TYPE HIV-1
In the U.S, virco®TYPE HIV-1 is sold as a diagnostic service available from most major reference labs.
For Europe, virco®TYPE HIV-1 retains the CE-mark confirming that it conforms to all essential requirements of the applicable EC directives. Many large hospitals and regional labs may also offer HIV resistance testing. In Europe, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and India, Virco has partnerships with several large HIV clinical centers, core centers or distributors.
