Abstract
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia is among the fastest growing in the world. HIV epidemic burden is non-uniform in different Russian regions and diverse key populations. An explosive epidemic has been documented among people who inject drugs (PWID) starting from the mid-1990s, whereas presently, the majority of new infections are linked to sexual transmission. Nationwide, HIV sub-subtype A6 (previously called AFSU) predominates, with the increasing presence of other subtypes, namely subtype B and CRF063_02A. This study explores HIV subtype B sequences from St. Petersburg, collected from 2006 to 2020, in order to phylogenetically investigate and characterize transmission clusters, focusing on their evolutionary dynamics and potential for further growth, along with a socio-demographic analysis of the available metadata. In total, 54% (107/198) of analyzed subtype B sequences were found grouped in 17 clusters, with four transmission clusters with the number of sequences above 10. Using Bayesian MCMC inference, tMRCA of HIV-1 subtype B was estimated to be around 1986 (95% HPD 1984–1991), whereas the estimated temporal origin for the four large clusters was found to be more recent, between 2001 and 2005. The results of our study imply a complex pattern of the epidemic spread of HIV subtype B in St. Petersburg, Russia, still in the exponential growth phase, and in connection to the men who have sex with men (MSM) transmission, providing a useful insight needed for the design of public health priorities and interventions.
Funder
Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia
Russian Science Foundation
Subject
Virology,Infectious Diseases
Reference50 articles.
1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control/WHO Regional Office for Europe (2021). HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Europe 2021–2020 Data.
2. Federal Russian AIDS Center (2022, May 30). Report 2021. (In Russian).
3. Beyrer, C., Wirtz, A.L., O’Hara, G., Léon, N., and Kazatchkine, M. (2017). The expanding epidemic of HIV-1 in the Russian Federation. PLoS Med., 14.
4. A sudden epidemic of HIV type 1 among injecting drug users in the former Soviet Union: Identification of subtype A.; subtype B.; and novel gagA/envB recombinants;Bobkov;AIDS Res. Hum. Retrovir.,1998
5. An HIV type 1 subtype A strain of low genetic diversity continues to spread among injecting drug users in Russia: Study of the new local outbreaks in Moscow and Irkutsk;Bobkov;AIDS Res. Hum. Retrovir.,2001
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献