Phylogenetic analyses indicate an atypical nurse-to-patient transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
A human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative patient with no risk factor experienced HIV type 1 (HIV-1) primary infection 4 weeks after being hospitalized for surgery. Among the medical staff, only two night shift nurses were identified as HIV-1 seropositive. No exposure to blood was evidenced. To test the hypothesis of a possible nurse-to-patient transmission, phylogenetic analyses were conducted using two HIV-1 genomic regions (pol reverse transcriptase [RT] and env C2C4), each compared with reference strains and large local control sets (57 RT and 41 C2C4 local controls). Extensive analyses using multiple methodologies allowed us to test the robustness of phylogeny inference and to assess transmission hypotheses. Results allow us to unambiguously exclude one HIV-positive nurse and strongly suggest the other HIV-positive nurse as the source of infection of the patient.
Goujon
C P
CP
Virologie, Hôpital Rothschild, Université Paris 6, Paris, France.
Schneider
V M
VM
Grofti
J
J
Montigny
J
J
Jeantils
V
V
Astagneau
P
P
Rozenbaum
W
W
Lot
F
F
Frocrain-Herchkovitch
C
C
Delphin
N
N
Le Gal
F
F
Nicolas
J C
JC
Milinkovitch
M C
MC
Dény
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D005260:Female; D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120 / Q000235:genetics*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase / Q000235:genetics*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D017757:Infectious Disease Transmission, Professional-to-Patient; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
D015699:HIV Envelope Protein gp120; D054303:HIV Reverse Transcriptase