HIV-1 Subtype distribution in morocco based on national sentinel surveillance data 2004-2005

doi:10.1186/1742-6405-9-5

AIDS Res Ther. 2012; 9: 5.

Published online 2012 February 14. doi: 10.1186/1742-6405-9-5

PMCID: PMC3308925

HIV-1 Subtype distribution in morocco based on national sentinel surveillance data 2004-2005

Mohammed Akrim,¹ Sanae Lemrabet,¹ Elmir Elharti,² Rebecca R Gray,³ Jean Claude Tardy,⁴ Robert L Cook,⁵ Marco Salemi,⁶ Patrice Andre,⁴ Taj Azarian,⁵ and Rajae El Aouad^1,²

¹Molecular Biology Unit, National Reference Laboratory for HIV, National Institute of Hygiene, Rabat, Morocco

²HIV Diagnosis and Immunologic Follow up Unit, National Reference Laboratory for HIV, National Institute of Hygiene, Rabat, Morocco

³Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

⁴Laboratoire de Virologie, Hôpital de la Croix Rousse, Lyon, France

⁵Department of Epidemiology and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

⁶Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

Corresponding author.

Mohammed Akrim: mohammedakrim/at/yahoo.fr; Sanae Lemrabet: sanae.lem/at/gmail.com; Elmir Elharti: elhartie/at/yahoo.fr; Rebecca R Gray: grayr/at/pathology.ufl.edu; Jean Claude Tardy: jean-claude.tardy/at/chu-lyon.fr; Robert L Cook: cookrl/at/ufl.edu; Marco Salemi: salemi/at/pathology.ufl.edu; Patrice Andre: patrice.andre/at/chu-lyon.fr; Taj Azarian: taj.azarian/at/epi.ufl.edu; Rajae El Aouad: rajaeelaouad/at/yahoo.fr

Received September 22, 2011; Accepted February 14, 2012.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Little is known about HIV-1 subtype distribution in Morocco. Some data suggest an emergence of new HIV subtypes. We conducted phylogenetic analysis on a nationally representative sample of 60 HIV-1 viral specimens collected during 2004-2005 through the Morocco national HIV sentinel surveillance survey.

Results

While subtype B is still the most prevalent, 23.3% of samples represented non-B subtypes, the majority of which were classified as CRF02_AG (15%). Molecular clock analysis confirmed that the initial introduction of HIV-1B in Morocco probably came from Europe in the early 1980s. In contrast, the CRF02_AG strain appeared to be introduced from sub-Saharan Africa in two separate events in the 1990s.

Conclusions

Subtype CRF02_AG has been emerging in Morocco since the 1990s. More information about the factors introducing HIV subtype-specific transmission will inform the prevention strategy in the region.

Keywords: HIV-1, subtypes, phylogeny, Morocco

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