HIV Strain and Primary Drug Resistance in Canada

Surveillance Report to March 31, 2004

PDF Version

May 2005

Mission

To promote and protect the health of Canadians through leadership, partnership, innovation and action in public health.

Public Health Agency of Canada

This report is available:

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Health, 2005. Catalogue No. H121-4/2004E ISBN 0-662-40358-4

May 2005

Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division
National HIV and Retrovirology Laboratories

Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control
Public Health Agency of Canada

Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the provincial/territorial HIV/AIDS coordinators, laboratories, health care providers, and reporting physicians for providing the serum specimen and non-nominal, confidential epidemiologic data that enabled this report to be published. Appendix 7 provides a listing of these contributors.

We also thank Scientific Publication and Multimedia services for its contribution in editing and producing the report.

N.B. This document must be cited as the source for any information extracted and used from it.

Suggested citation: Public Health Agency of Canada. HIV-1 Strain and Primary Drug Resistance in Canada: Surveillance Report to March 31, 2004. Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, 2005.

Information to the readers of HIV-1 Strain and Primary Drug Resistance in Canada

On behalf of the Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division and the National HIV and Retrovirology Laboratories, we are pleased to provide you with the HIV-1 Strain and Primary Drug Resistance in Canada: Surveillance Report to March 31, 2004. This report is part of an annual series, providing a review of the genetic diversity of HIV in Canada.

We present data that are shared by provinces participating in the Canadian HIV Strain and Drug Resistance Surveillance Program. The Field Surveillance Officers are responsible for coordinating data collection and submission to the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Section and the Strain and Drug Resistance Program Section. The HIV Strain and Drug Resistance Surveillance Section is responsible for managing and analyzing data, as well as, writing and coordinating the publication of this report. The National Laboratory for HIV Genetics conducts the strain and primary drug resistance genotyping. The National Laboratory for HIV Reference Services determines the estimated time of infection, using a combination of two commercially available kits: the Organon Technika Vironostika HIV-1-LS^TM and the Abbott 3A11-LS^TM assays. This laboratory also serves as a sentinel arm in monitoring the presence of unusual strains of HIV in Canada.

The major findings of the surveillance data are outlined in the section entitled Results at a Glance. This is followed by a series of tables summarizing the HIV-1 strain and primary drug resistance data. Each table provides specific explanatory details, as appropriate. Technical notes, references, and data sources are available in the Appendices.

A further description of HIV-1 strain and primary drug resistance in Canada is available in the HIV/AIDS Epi Updates reports available on our web site.

The publication of this report would not be possible without the collaboration of the provinces participating in our national HIV strain and drug resistance surveillance program. Their on going contribution to this surveillance program is gratefully acknowledged in Appendix 7.

This is the third report on HIV strain and primary drug resistance surveillance in Canada. We will be working toward improving this report to reflect changes in the surveillance of HIV strain and primary drug resistance. We welcome and appreciate your comments and suggestions. Yours sincerely,

Dr. Gayatri Jayaraman	Dr. James Brooks
Dr. Chris Archibald	Dr. Paul Sandstrom

HIV-1 Strain and Drug Resistance Surveillance in Canada

Table of Contents

Appendices

• Appendix 1 - Overview of the Canadian HIV Strain and Drug Resistance Surveillance Program
• Appendix 2  - Methodology
• Appendix 3 - Technical Notes
• Appendix 4 - Data Limitations
• Appendix 5 - Glossary of Terms
• Appendix 6 -  List of mutations used for this report
• Appendix 7 - Data Sources