Journal Article

Limited Sustained Local Transmission of HIV-1 CRF01_(A)E in New South Wales, Australia

Holden, Joanne, Bachmann, Nadine, Kelleher, Anthony D., Shaik, Ansari, Salem, Hanan, Duchêne, Sebastián, Price, Karen, Selvey, Christine, Keen, Phillip, Telfer, Barbara, Dwyer, Dominic E., Holmes, Edward C., Pinto, Angie N., Lee, Frederick J., Cooper, Craig, Carrera, Alex, Di Giallonardo, Francesca, Grulich, Andrew E.

2019

Overview

Australia’s response to the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) pandemic led to effective control of HIV transmission and one of the world’s lowest HIV incidence rates—0.14%. Although there has been a recent decline in new HIV diagnoses in New South Wales (NSW), the most populous state in Australia, there has been a concomitant increase with non-B subtype infections, particularly for the HIV-1 circulating recombinant form CRF01_(A)E. This aforementioned CRF01_(A)E sampled in NSW, were combined with those sampled globally to identify NSW-specific viral clades. The population growth of these clades was assessed in two-year period intervals from 2009 to 2017. Overall, 109 NSW-specific clades were identified, most comprising pairs of sequences; however, five large clades comprising ≥10 sequences were also found. Forty-four clades grew over time with one or two sequences added to each in different two-year periods. Importantly, while 10 of these clades have seemingly discontinued, the remaining 34 were still active in 2016/2017. Seven such clades each comprised ≥10 sequences, and are representative of individual sub-epidemics in NSW. Thus, although the majority of new CRF01_(A)E infections were associated with small clades that rarely establish ongoing chains of local transmission, individual sub-epidemics are present and should be closely monitored.

• Publisher: MDPI,MDPI AG
• Subject: cluster growth / evolution / HIV-1 CRF01_(A)E / sub-epidemic / transmission cluster