TY - JOUR
T1 - HIV-1 Infection in Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean European Frontier
T2 - A Densely Sampled Transmission Dynamics Analysis from 1986 to 2012
AU - Pineda-Peña, Andrea Clemencia
AU - Theys, Kristof
AU - Stylianou, Dora C.
AU - Demetriades, Ioannis
AU - Puchhammer, Elisabeth
AU - Vandamme, Anne Mieke
AU - Aleksiev, Ivailo
AU - Lepej, Snjezana Zidovec
AU - Linka, Marek
AU - Fonager, Jannik
AU - Liitsola, Kirsi
AU - Kaiser, Rolf
AU - Hamouda, Osamah
AU - Paraskevis, Dimitrios
AU - Coughlan, Suzie
AU - Grossman, Zehava
AU - Mor, Orna
AU - Zazzi, Maurizio
AU - Griskevicius, Algirdas
AU - Lipnickiene, Vilnele
AU - Devaux, Carole
AU - Boucher, Charles
AU - Hofstra, Marije
AU - Wensing, Annemarie
AU - Bakken-Kran, Anne Marte
AU - Horban, Andrzej
AU - Camacho, Ricardo
AU - Paraschiv, Simona
AU - Otelea, Dan
AU - Stanojevic, Maja
AU - Stanekova, Danika
AU - Poljak, Mario
AU - Garcia, Federico
AU - Paredes, Roger
AU - Albert, Jan
AU - Abecasis, Ana B.
AU - Kostrikis, Leondios G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank all participating subjects from the Larnaca General Hospital AIDS Clinic, Cyprus, C. Kasapis, M. Yangou, A. Demetriou, M. Panagi, the Cyprus Ministry of Health and the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee for valuable assistance, as well as J. Hezka, I. Kousiappa and M. Andreou for the primary data collection on the Cypriot patients4,5,11. This work was supported by grants from the European Commission (FP6–014822, QLK2-CT-2001-01344), the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (Health/0104/22), the University of Cyprus (8037-3/312-25004 and 837–25011), and the Birch Biomedical Research LLC (3416–25017), awarded to Leondios G. Kostrikis. Dora C. Stylianou was supported by the University of Cyprus. Andrea-Clemencia Pineda-Peña was funded in by the project Bio-Molecular and Epidemiological Surveillance of HIV Transmitted Drug Resistance, Hepatitis Co-Infections and Ongoing Transmission Patterns in Europe (BEST HOPE) (funded through HIVERA: Harmonizing Integrating Vitalizing European Research on HIV/AIDS, grant 249697); by The Research Foundation in Flanders (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen, FWO grant G.0692.14); by The Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT) and by funds to the Global Health and Tropical Medicine Research and Development Center, GHTM (UID/Multi/04413/2013). Kristof Theys was funded by a postdoctoral grant by The Research Foundation in Flanders (FWO grant PDO/11). Ana B. Abecasis was supported by an Investigator research grant by the Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology. The computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the Hercules Foundation and the Flemish Government, Department EWI-FWO Krediet aan Navorsers (Theys, KAN2012 1.5.249.12.). SPREAD (Strategy to Control SPREAD of HIV Drug Resistance) is a HIV-drug resistance surveillance program executed under the authority of the European Society for translational Antiviral Research (ESAR).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Since HIV-1 treatment is increasingly considered an effective preventionstrategy, it is important to study local HIV-1 epidemics to formulate tailored preventionpolicies. The prevalence of HIV-1 in Cyprus was historically low until 2005. To investigatethe shift in epidemiological trends, we studied the transmission dynamics of HIV-1 in Cyprususing a densely sampled Cypriot HIV-1 transmission cohort that included 85 percent ofHIV-1-infected individuals linked to clinical care between 1986 and 2012 based on detailedclinical, epidemiological, behavioral and HIV-1 genetic information. Subtyping andtransmission cluster reconstruction were performed using maximum likelihood and Bayesianmethods, and the transmission chain network was linked to the clinical, epidemiological andbehavioral data. The results reveal that for the main HIV-1 subtype A1 and B sub-epidemics,young and drug-naïve HIV-1-infected individuals in Cyprus are driving the dynamics of thelocal HIV-1 epidemic. The results of this study provide a better understanding of thedynamics of the HIV-1 infection in Cyprus, which may impact the development of preventionstrategies. Furthermore, this methodology for analyzing densely sampled transmissiondynamics is applicable to other geographic regions to implement effective HIV-1 preventionstrategies in local settings.
AB - Since HIV-1 treatment is increasingly considered an effective preventionstrategy, it is important to study local HIV-1 epidemics to formulate tailored preventionpolicies. The prevalence of HIV-1 in Cyprus was historically low until 2005. To investigatethe shift in epidemiological trends, we studied the transmission dynamics of HIV-1 in Cyprususing a densely sampled Cypriot HIV-1 transmission cohort that included 85 percent ofHIV-1-infected individuals linked to clinical care between 1986 and 2012 based on detailedclinical, epidemiological, behavioral and HIV-1 genetic information. Subtyping andtransmission cluster reconstruction were performed using maximum likelihood and Bayesianmethods, and the transmission chain network was linked to the clinical, epidemiological andbehavioral data. The results reveal that for the main HIV-1 subtype A1 and B sub-epidemics,young and drug-naïve HIV-1-infected individuals in Cyprus are driving the dynamics of thelocal HIV-1 epidemic. The results of this study provide a better understanding of thedynamics of the HIV-1 infection in Cyprus, which may impact the development of preventionstrategies. Furthermore, this methodology for analyzing densely sampled transmissiondynamics is applicable to other geographic regions to implement effective HIV-1 preventionstrategies in local settings.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041118980&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-017-19080-5
DO - 10.1038/s41598-017-19080-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 29374182
AN - SCOPUS:85041118980
VL - 8
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 1702
ER -