Characterization of HIV Transmission in South-East Austria

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 11;11(3):e0151478. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151478. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

To gain deeper insight into the epidemiology of HIV-1 transmission in South-East Austria we performed a retrospective analysis of 259 HIV-1 partial pol sequences obtained from unique individuals newly diagnosed with HIV infection in South-East Austria from 2008 through 2014. After quality filtering, putative transmission linkages were inferred when two sequences were ≤1.5% genetically different. Multiple linkages were resolved into putative transmission clusters. Further phylogenetic analyses were performed using BEAST v1.8.1. Finally, we investigated putative links between the 259 sequences from South-East Austria and all publicly available HIV polymerase sequences in the Los Alamos National Laboratory HIV sequence database. We found that 45.6% (118/259) of the sampled sequences were genetically linked with at least one other sequence from South-East Austria forming putative transmission clusters. Clustering individuals were more likely to be men who have sex with men (MSM; p<0.001), infected with subtype B (p<0.001) or subtype F (p = 0.02). Among clustered males who reported only heterosexual (HSX) sex as an HIV risk, 47% clustered closely with MSM (either as pairs or within larger MSM clusters). One hundred and seven of the 259 sequences (41.3%) from South-East Austria had at least one putative inferred linkage with sequences from a total of 69 other countries. In conclusion, analysis of HIV-1 sequences from newly diagnosed individuals residing in South-East Austria revealed a high degree of national and international clustering mainly within MSM. Interestingly, we found that a high number of heterosexual males clustered within MSM networks, suggesting either linkage between risk groups or misrepresentation of sexual risk behaviors by subjects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Austria / epidemiology
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / epidemiology
  • HIV Infections / transmission*
  • HIV Infections / virology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Spatio-Temporal Analysis
  • Young Adult
  • pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / genetics

Substances

  • pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus