Molecular epidemiological survey among newly-diagnosed HIV-1 infected individuals in Taizhou, Zhejiang,2011

Objective To understand the basic characteristics and HIV-1 subtype distribution among newly-diagnosed HIV infected individuals in Taizhou in 2011. Methods Blood samples were collected from 140 newly-diagnosed HIV infected individuals who received no antiviral therapy. RNAs were extracted and part of the pol gene which encoded the whole viral enzymes protease and part of reverse transcriptase was amplified with RT-PCR. HIV-Blast was used to confirm the subtypes of HIV-1. Results The male to female ratio of HIV infected persons was 3.24 ：1. Up to 92.86% of HIV infections occurred through sexual contact, and 3.57% were through injecting drug use. Subtypes of CRF01_AE, CRF07_BC, CRF08_BC, B and C were detected, Totally 57.14% of the infections through sexual transmission were caused by subtype CRF01_AE and most infections through injecting drug use were caused by subtype C. Conclusion Sexual contact was the major HIV transmission route in Taizhou. The diversity of HIV-1 gene was observed. CRF01_AE was common in sexual transmitted infections and CRF07_BC was common in the infections through injecting drug use.