Molecular analysis of human immunodeficiency virus strains associated with a case of criminal transmission of the virus.

An investigation was done of the evidence for transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from an HIV-positive man to several male and female sex contacts. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences from the gag and env genes showed a close relationship between the predominant virus strains from the source and 2 contacts. However, the likelihood that a female contact was infected by the source could not be determined, despite contact tracing indicating that this may have occurred. One male, shown by contact tracing and molecular evidence to have been infected by the source, subsequently transmitted HIV to his female sex partner. HIV sequence from a plasma sample used as a control in the phylogenetic analysis contained env and gag sequences that were closely related to those from the source. An epidemiologic link between these 2 individuals was subsequently confirmed by contact tracing.

[1]  M. Milinkovitch,et al.  Phylogenetic Analyses Indicate an Atypical Nurse-to-Patient Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 , 2000, Journal of Virology.

[2]  Alain Blanchard,et al.  Molecular Evidence for Nosocomial Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus from a Surgeon to One of His Patients , 1998, Journal of Virology.

[3]  A. J. Brown,et al.  Molecular investigation into outbreak of HIV in a Scottish prison , 1997, BMJ.

[4]  M P Busch,et al.  Divergence of HIV‐1 quasispecies in an epidemiologic cluster , 1997, AIDS.

[5]  P Balfe,et al.  Sequence distances between env genes of HIV-1 from individuals infected from the same source: implications for the investigation of possible transmission events. , 1995, Virology.

[6]  J. Thompson,et al.  CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. , 1994, Nucleic acids research.

[7]  M. Uhlén,et al.  Analysis of a rape case by direct sequencing of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 pol and gag genes , 1994, Journal of virology.

[8]  J. Huelsenbeck,et al.  Application and accuracy of molecular phylogenies. , 1994, Science.

[9]  E. Holmes,et al.  Molecular investigation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in a patient of an HIV-infected surgeon. , 1993, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[10]  J. Huelsenbeck,et al.  Signal, noise, and reliability in molecular phylogenetic analyses. , 1992, The Journal of heredity.

[11]  J. Mullins,et al.  Molecular Epidemiology of HIV Transmission in a Dental Practice , 1992, Science.

[12]  M S Waterman,et al.  The Continuing Case of the Florida Dentist , 1992, Science.

[13]  Gilcher Ro.  Human retroviruses and AIDS. , 1988 .