The global spread of HIV-1 subtype B epidemic.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was discovered in the early 1980s when the virus had already established a pandemic. For at least three decades the epidemic in the Western World has been dominated by subtype B infections, as part of a sub-epidemic that traveled from Africa through Haiti to United States. However, the pattern of the subsequent spread still remains poorly understood. Here we analyze a large dataset of globally representative HIV-1 subtype B strains to map their spread around the world over the last 50years and describe significant spread patterns. We show that subtype B travelled from North America to Western Europe in different occasions, while Central/Eastern Europe remained isolated for the most part of the early epidemic. Looking with more detail in European countries we see that the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland exchanged viral isolates with non-European countries than with European ones. The observed pattern is likely to mirror geopolitical landmarks in the post-World War II era, namely the rise and the fall of the Iron Curtain and the European colonialism. In conclusion, HIV-1 spread through specific migration routes which are consistent with geopolitical factors that affected human activities during the last 50years, such as migration, tourism and trade. Our findings support the argument that epidemic control policies should be global and incorporate political and socioeconomic factors.
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Electronic address: gkikas.magiorkinis@zoo.ox.ac.uk.
Gkikas
G
Magiorkinis
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Konstantinos
K
Angelis
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Ioannis
I
Mamais
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Aris
A
Katzourakis
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Angelos
A
Hatzakis
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan
J
Albert
Department of Computational Biology, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Glenn
G
Lawyer
Robert Koch-Institute, Berlin, Germany.
Osamah
O
Hamouda
Centre de Recherche Public de la Sante, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Daniel
D
Struck
Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Jurgen
J
Vercauteren
Department of Virology, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Annemarie
A
Wensing
National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Ivailo
I
Alexiev
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Birgitta
B
Åsjö
University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Claudia
C
Balotta
Molecular Biology Lab, LMCBM, SPC, HEM, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Ocidental, Lisbon, Portugal.
Perpétua
P
Gomes
Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Ricardo J
RJ
Camacho
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Suzie
S
Coughlan
Lithuanian AIDS Center, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Algirdas
A
Griskevicius
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Zehava
Z
Grossman
Hospital of Infectious Diseases, Warsaw, Poland.
Anders
A
Horban
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Leondios G
LG
Kostrikis
Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Flow Cytometry, University Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Dr. F. Mihaljevic", Zagreb, Croatia.
Snjezana J
SJ
Lepej
National Institute of Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Kirsi
K
Liitsola
National Reference Laboratory of AIDS, National Institute of Health, Prague, Czech Republic.
Marek
M
Linka
Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Claus
C
Nielsen
National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Prof. Dr. Matei Bals", Bucharest, Romania.
Dan
D
Otelea
IrsiCaixa Foundation, Badalona, Spain.
Roger
R
Paredes
Slovenian HIV/AIDS Reference Centre, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Mario
M
Poljak
University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Elizabeth
E
Puchhammer-Stöckl
Centre de Recherche Public de la Sante, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Jean Claude
JC
Schmit
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Virology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Anders
A
Sönnerborg
Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Danica
D
Staneková
University of Belgrade Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade, Serbia.
Maja
M
Stanojevic
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Dora C
DC
Stylianou
Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Charles A B
CAB
Boucher
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Georgios
G
Nikolopoulos
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Tetyana
T
Vasylyeva
Institute of Infectious Diseases Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., New York, USA.
Samuel R
SR
Friedman
Eijkman Winkler Institute, Department of Virology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
David
D
van de Vijver
University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.
Gioacchino
G
Angarano
Laboratoire de Virology, Hôpital Necker Paris, France.
Marie-Laure
ML
Chaix
Institute of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Catholic university, Rome, Italy.
Andrea
A
de Luca
University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
Klaus
K
Korn
International Clinical Virology Centre, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom.
Clive
C
Loveday
Hospital Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Vincent
V
Soriano
Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
Sabine
S
Yerly
University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
Mauricio
M
Zazzi
Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, Rega Institute for Medical Research, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Anne-Mieke
AM
Vandamme
Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Electronic address: dparask@med.uoa.gr.
Dimitrios
D
Paraskevis
D016000:Cluster Analysis; D058872:Epidemics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D058974:Phylogeography
HIV-1; Migration; Migration pattern; Phylogeography; Subtype B