AEGiS-11IAC: Molecular epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in St. Petersburg, Russia.

11th International AIDS Conference


Vancouver, British Columbia — July 7-12, 1996

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Molecular epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:441 (abstract no. Pub.A.1020)
Kozlov A, Emeljanov A, Malykh A, Barabitskaya O, Verevotchkin S, Farzadegan H, Reitz MC; Biomedical Center for AIDS, Cancer and Related Problems, Research Institute of Pure Biochemicals, St. Petersburg, Russia. Fax: 7-(812)-230-4948. E-mail: HIVAIDS@mod.hpb.spb.ru.

OBJECTIVES: In our previous works (Kozlov et al., 1993,1994) we have shown that Russia is presently experiencing an early stage of HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was interesting to study molecular epidemiology of this early stage of epidemic.

METHODS: Using the approach of nested PCR with multiple primers we were able to amplify, clone and sequence the env-specific fragments of HIV-infected patients at the early stages of infection (CDC:IIIA-IIB) which was difficult because of extremely low viral load.

RESULTS: The phylogenetic analysis of nucleotide sequences has shown that homosexuals and also some promiscuous women are infected with HIV subtype B MN-like. The intrasubtype comparisons of genetic diversity have shown the broad distribution (1,6%-18,2%) with median 11,67% which was strange for the early stage of the epidemic.

CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize that such a broad distribution in genetic diversity is connected to multiple independent penetrations of HIV into St. Petersburg from different geographic areas. The presence of HIV subtype B MN-like in homosexuals and promiscuous women altogether with dramatic increase of incidence of STDs and social and economical crisis constitute a basis for a poor prognosis for the development of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia in the near future. 1. Kozlov A.P.et al.(1993) J. Acq. Immun. Def. Syndr., 6:208-212 2. Kozlov A. P. et al.(1994) Abst. X-th Int. Conf. on AIDS, Yokohama, Japan, 126C.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV, Epidemiology, Molecular, HIV-1, HIV Infections, Viral Load, HIV Envelope Protein gp120, Homosexuality, Sequence Tagged Sites, HIV Seropositivity, HIV-2, HIV Seroprevalence, Disease Outbreaks, HIV Long Terminal Repeat, Variation (Genetics), Russia, Japan, Human, Female, genetics, ICA11

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PubA1020

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