Policy Leadership on HIV Drug Resistance

HIV drug resistance remains a persistent threat to the 24.5 million people on treatment worldwide. Dr. Holmes has been a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) HIV resistance network steering committee since 2015, helping to steer the development of strategies to prevent and respond to HIV drug resistance. In 2017, the group supported the launch of the first ever WHO Global Action Plan for HIV Drug Resistance (new window), and has published subsequent updates detailing progress towards its defined goals. Given the link between HIV program quality and the development of HIV drug resistance, WHO in created a link between the “Prevention” pillar of the Global Action Plan with the WHO Global Technical Working group on the Quality of HIV services. Dr. Holmes Chairs the Pillar 1 group for the Global Action Plan.

In 2018, Dr. Raph Hamers and Dr. Tobias Rinke de Wit of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) collaborated with Dr. Holmes on a systematic review of HIV drug resistance in low and middle income countries, (new window)published in The Lancet HIV.