title: Characterization of HIV Transmission in South-East Austria.
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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.|Section of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.|Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoenigl
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaillon
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Harald H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kessler
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Landeskrankenhaus Graz West, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stelzl
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weninger
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Little
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America.|Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, San Diego, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sanjay R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Mehta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D055815:Young Adult; D054302:pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D054302:pol Gene Products, Human Immunodeficiency Virus