Assessing the HIV-1 Epidemic in Brazilian Drug Users: A Molecular Epidemiology Approach.

ABSTRACT: Person who inject illicit substances have an important role in HIV-1 blood and sexual transmission and together with person who uses heavy non-injecting drugs may have less than optimal adherence to anti-retroviral treatment and eventually could transmit resistant HIV variants. Unfortunately, molecular biology data on such key population remain fragmentary in most low and middle-income countries. The aim of the present study was to assess HIV infection rates, evaluate HIV-1 genetic diversity, drug resistance, and to identify HIV transmission clusters in heavy drug users (DUs). For this purpose, DUs were recruited in the context of a Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) study in different Brazilian cities during 2009. Overall, 2,812 individuals were tested for HIV, and 168 (6%) of them were pos

SUBMITTER: Guimaraes ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4633026 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature