The findings, published in the journal AIDS, highlight the complexity of the outbreak and may have implications on future HIV vaccine development in the region.
Noting a lack of HIV epidemiology research focused specifically on North Africa and the Middle East, MHRP researchers Morgane Rolland and Kayvon Modjarrad, conducted an analysis of publicly available HIV-1 sequences to better characterize the regional epidemic.
The results were published in a research letter today in the journal AIDS. Their analysis suggests a complicated and diverse regional epidemic with a high potential for generating new recombinant forms of HIV-1.
“The complexity of the MENA epidemic has implications for prevention strategies, as the development of an effective vaccine would need to be tailored to the multiple circulating subtypes,” Rolland and Modjarrad write. These findings “highlight the need to improved reporting of incident HIV infections and more comprehensive sequence sampling to better define the epidemiologic patters of this expanding regional epidemic.”
Visit AIDS to read the full analysis of the MENA HIV-1 epidemic in North Africa and the Middle East.