Abstract: Objective：To estimate the prevalence of antiretroviral drug resistance in treatment-naive individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in China. Methods: Five electronic databases ［Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), Chinese ScienceTechnology Journal Database (VIP), Wanfang Data, and PubMed］ were searched for studies of HIV drug resistance in untreated individuals. Drug resistance data were abstracted then pooled using the random effect model. Subgroup analysis was done across sampling time, location, study population (mean age and infection status), and sample size. Results: Seventy-six studies were included for our meta-analysis (46 in Chinese, 30 in English). The pooled rates of drug resistance to total, to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI), to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), and to protease inhibitor (PI) were 4.7% (95%CI：4.0%-5.4%), 2.3% (95%CI：1.8%-2.8%), 1.8% (95%CI：1.3%-2.3%), and 1.4% (95%CI：1.1%-1.8%), respectively. All the rates before 2007 were higher than those for 2008 or later. Meanwhile, significant differences were found in the sample areas (P<0.05), in which, the rates in South-central and Southwest were both higher than 5%. The difference was complex between mean age and infection status subgroup, and we found the total prevalence in the group under 25 years and the newly infected, and confirmed group was lower than in the others. For sample size, all the rates in the group under 100 samples were higher than in the others, and the difference was significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of HIV primary drug resistance in China was 4.7%, which stayed low, but was also close to the line set by WHO. Enhanced surveillance for drug resistance is necessary in high epidemic areas including the South-central and Southwest China whose prevalence has crossed the line.

Key words: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, HIV infections, Anti-HIV agents, Drug resistance,viral, Meta-analysis