I had a question on HBV drug resistance. How does drug resistance work in case of vemlidy or entecavir? I recently started my treatment since my ALT was slightly elevated 35. However i am worried about drug resistance and what would happen if virus mutates to vemlidy. Is there a very specific case when there was drug resistance reported for vemlidy or does it happen at random? Also is there a possibility if my partner was lamvudine resistant and now i got an infection of the same virus who was lamvudine resistant or is it different for every individual?
Hi @Ash_Malhotra,
Drug resistance rates among the 3 first lines of antiviral treatments are very low compared to Lamvudine and other antivirals used decades ago. There is no evidence for resistance among TDF or TAF at this time, but we don’t know what might happen years down the road. Entecavir has very low drug resistance rates which occur around year 2 (less than 1% ) in naive-patients. Lamvudine is not used in most western countries to treat HBV anymore due to its higher rates of drug resistance.
I found this article from 2019, I hope you find it helpful. Thanks, Bansah1
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Agree with this analysis. See also previous threads on this:
- Why hepb virus seldom become resistant to tenofovir
- Drug resistance?
- Drug resistant hep b patient infecting others
Cheers,
Thomas