Abstract
Little is known about the frequency of ongoing HIV transmission within U.S. African immigrant communities. We used HIV surveillance and partner services data to describe African-born persons newly reported with HIV infection in King County (KC), WA from 1/1/2010 to 12/31/2013. We performed phylogenetic clustering analysis of HIV-1 pol to identify putative transmission events within this population. From 2010 to 2013, 1148 KC adults were reported with HIV, including 102 (9 %) born in Africa. Forty-one African-born cases were interviewed and reported diagnosis after arrival in the U.S. Fourteen (34 %) reported ≥1 negative test prior to diagnosis, and 9 (26 %) reported ≥1 negative test after U.S. arrival. Pol genotypes were available for seven of these nine. For two of these seven, a KC case was the nearest phylogenetic neighbor; two others were infected with subtype B virus. We found substantial evidence of ongoing HIV transmission in the African community of KC.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NIAD K01 AI095060 (to R.P.K.), NIAID R01 AI108490 (to J.T.H.), NIAID K23 AI11523791 (to L.A.B.), and by a developmental grant from the University of Washington Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), an NIH funded program under award number P30AI027757 that is supported by the following NIH Institutes and Centers (NIAID, NCI, NIMH, NIDA, NICHD, NHLBI, NIA, NIGMS, NIDDK).
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The University of Washington Institutional Review Board approved the use of Public Health—Seattle and King County records for this study, including a waiver of consent.
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Kerani, R.P., Herbeck, J.T., Buskin, S.E. et al. Evidence of Local HIV Transmission in the African Community of King County, Washington. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 891–896 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0458-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0458-3