Tracing the impact of public health interventions on HIV-1 transmission in Portugal using molecular epidemiology

Background Estimation of temporal changes in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission patterns can help to elucidate the impact of preventive strategies and public health policies. Methods Portuguese HIV-1 subtype B and G pol genetic sequences were appended to global reference data sets to identify country-specific transmission clades. Bayesian birth-death models were used to estimate subtype-specific effective reproductive numbers (Re). Discrete trait analysis (DTA) was used to quantify mixing among transmission groups. Results We identified 5 subtype B Portuguese clades (26–79 sequences) and a large monophyletic subtype G Portuguese clade (236 sequences). We estimated that major shifts in HIV-1 transmission occurred around 1999 (95% Bayesian credible interval [BCI], 1998–2000) and 2000 (95% BCI, 1998–2001) for subtypes B and G, respectively. For subtype B, Re dropped from 1.91 (95% BCI, 1.73–2.09) to 0.62 (95% BCI,.52–.72). For subtype G, Re decreased from 1.49 (95% BCI, 1.39–1.59) to 0.72 (95% BCI, .63–.8). The DTA suggests that people who inject drugs (PWID) and heterosexuals were the source of most (>80%) virus lineage transitions for subtypes G and B, respectively. Conclusions The estimated declines in Re coincide with the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy and the scale-up of harm reduction for PWID. Inferred transmission events across transmission groups emphasize the importance of prevention efforts for bridging populations.

Keywords

HIV Portugal phylodynamics epidemiology reproductive number transmission groups harm reduction

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/58099

Citation

Tetyana I Vasylyeva, Louis du Plessis, Andrea C Pineda-Peña, Denise Kühnert, Philippe Lemey, Anne-Mieke Vandamme, Perpétua Gomes, Ricardo J Camacho, Oliver G Pybus, Ana B Abecasis, Nuno R Faria, Tracing the Impact of Public Health Interventions on HIV-1 Transmission in Portugal Using Molecular Epidemiology, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 220, Issue 2, 15 July 2019, Pages 233–243, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz085