Expanding HIV-1 subtype B transmission networks among men who have sex with men in Poland

• Published in: PloS one 2017-02, Vol.12 (2), p.e0172473
• Main Authors: Parczewski, Miłosz, Leszczyszyn-Pynka, Magdalena, Witak-Jędra, Magdalena, Szetela, Bartosz, Gąsiorowski, Jacek, Knysz, Brygida, Bociąga-Jasik, Monika, Skwara, Paweł, Grzeszczuk, Anna, Jankowska, Maria, Barałkiewicz, Grażyna, Mozer-Lisewska, Iwona, Łojewski, Władysław, Kozieł, Katarzyna, Grąbczewska, Edyta, Jabłonowska, Elżbieta, Urbańska, Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Adult; AIDS; Analysis; Antiretroviral drugs; Bayes Theorem; Bayesian analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Cluster Analysis; Clustering; Clusters; Computer networks; Contact Tracing - statistics & numerical data; Disease prevention; Disease transmission; Drug resistance; Epidemics; Epidemiology; Female; Gays & lesbians; Genotype; Health aspects; Heterosexuality; HIV; HIV infections; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - transmission; HIV Infections - virology; HIV Protease - genetics; HIV-1 - classification; HIV-1 - genetics; HIV-1 - isolation & purification; Homosexuality, Male; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infections; Male; Mathematical models; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and health sciences; Mens health; MSM (Men who have sex with men); Networks; Patients; People and Places; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Poland - epidemiology; Public Health Surveillance; Reconstruction; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk factors; RNA-directed DNA polymerase; Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Substance Abuse, Intravenous - epidemiology; Substance Abuse, Intravenous - virology
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172473

Reconstruction of HIV transmission links allows to trace the spread and dynamics of infection and guide epidemiological interventions. The aim of this study was to characterize transmission networks among subtype B infected patients from Poland. Maximum likelihood phylogenenetic trees were inferred from 966 HIV-1 subtype B protease/reverse transcriptase sequences from patients followed up in nine Polish HIV centers. Monophyletic clusters were identified using 3% within-cluster distance and 0.9 bootstrap values. Interregional links for the clusters were investigated and time from infection to onward transmission estimated using Bayesian dated MCMC phylogeny. Three hundred twenty one (33.2%) sequences formed 109 clusters, including ten clusters of ≥5 sequences (n = 81, 8.4%). Transmission networks were more common among MSM (234 sequences, 68.6%) compared to other infection routes (injection drug use: 28 (8.2%) and heterosexual transmissions: 59 (17.3%) cases, respectively [OR:3.5 (95%CI:2.6-4.6),p