Recent HIV-1 Outbreak Among Intravenous Drug Users in Romania: Evidence for Cocirculation of CRF14_BG and Subtype F1 Strains.

ABSTRACT: Since 2011, Romania has faced an HIV outbreak among injecting drug users (IDUs). Our aim was to identify and describe clinical and epidemiological patterns of this outbreak. A cross-sectional study enrolled 138 IDUs diagnosed with HIV infection between 2011 and 2013 with 58 sexually infected individuals included as the control group. The IDUs had a long history of heroin abuse (10 years) and a recent history of new psychostimulant injection (3-4 years). Classical epidemiological data and molecular techniques were used to describe the transmission dynamics. A high prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection was noted (98.6%) compared to the control group (10.3%) (p<0.001). IDUs had initially been infected with HCV. HIV infection was more recent, linked to starting injecting stimulants

SUBMITTER: Niculescu I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426324 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature