Molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 subtype A in former Soviet Union countries
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Date
2018-02-01
Authors
Aibekova, Lazzat
Foley, Brian
Hortelano, Gonzalo
Raees, Muhammad
Abdraimov, Sabit
Toichuev, Rakhmanbek
Ali, Syed
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
PLoS ONE
Abstract
While in other parts of the world it is on decline, incidence of HIV infection continues to rise
in the former Soviet Union (FSU) countries. The present study was conducted to investigate
the patterns and modes of HIV transmission in FSU countries. We performed phylogenetic
analysis of publicly available 2705 HIV-1 subtype A pol sequences from thirteen FSU countries:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Our analysis showed that the clusters
from FSU countries were intermixed, indicating a possible role of transmigration in HIV
transmission. Injection drug use was found to be the most frequent mode of transmission,
while the clusters from PWID and heterosexual transmission were intermixed, indicating
bridging of HIV infection across populations. To control the expanding HIV epidemic in this
region, harm reduction strategies should be focused on three modes of transmission,
namely, cross-border migration, injection drug use and heterosexual.
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Citation
Aibekova L, Foley B, Hortelano G, Raees M, Abdraimov S, Toichuev R, et al. (2018) Molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 subtype A in former Soviet Union countries. PLoS ONE 13(2): e0191891. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0191891