Detection of HIV-1 Transmission Clusters from Dried Blood Spots within a Universal Test-and-Treat Trial in East Africa.

ABSTRACT: The Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH) trial was a universal test-and-treat (UTT) trial in rural Uganda and Kenya, aiming to lower regional HIV-1 incidence. Here, we quantify breakthrough HIV-1 transmissions occurring during the trial from population-based, dried blood spot samples. Between 2013 and 2017, we obtained 549 gag and 488 pol HIV-1 consensus sequences from 745 participants: 469 participants infected prior to trial commencement and 276 SEARCH-incident infections. Putative transmission clusters, with a 1.5% pairwise genetic distance threshold, were inferred from maximum likelihood phylogenies; clusters arising after the start of SEARCH were identified with Bayesian time-calibrated phylogenies. Our phylodynamic approach identified nine clust

SUBMITTER: Pujol-Hodge E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9414799 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature