A recent human immunodeficiency virus outbreak among people who inject drugs in Munich, Germany, is associated with consumption of synthetic cathinones
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Needle and syringe sharing among people who inject drugs (PWID) can result in a rapid regional spread of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) variant. Such outbreaks have been identified recently in several countries and have raised public health attention because of an association with new psychoactive substances (NPS). Methods: Dried serum spots from approximately 60% of newly diagnosed HIV cases in Germany in 2013-2018 were received together with statutory notification data. Samples were sequenced in the pol-region, genotyped, and viral phylogenies were analyzed. For selected samples, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) status and the presence of NPS were determined. Results: An outbreak of closely related 27 subtype C infections with a core of 11 cases with almost identical sequences was identified using phylogenetic analyses. The first case of the outbreak was diagnosed in 2015, and the last one was in 2018. With exception of 3 infections, all were reported from Munich, the capital of the federal state of Bavaria. Of 26 analyzed outbreak members, 24 (92.3%) had a resolved or viremic HCV coinfection. In 8 of 18 (44%) cases, α-pyrrolidinopentiothiophenone and/or the related substance α-pyrrolidinoheptiophenone was identified. Conclusions: Despite harm reduction services in place, HIV outbreaks of considerable size can occur in PWID. The establishment of a real-time molecular surveillance is advised to rapidly identify outbreaks and target prevention measures.
Date Issued
2020-06-01
Date Acceptance
2020-05-25
Citation
Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2020, 7 (6), pp.ofaa192-ofaa192
ISSN
2328-8957
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Start Page
ofaa192
End Page
ofaa192
Journal / Book Title
Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Volume
7
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32617370
PII: ofaa192
Grant Number
GCAEN 511473
1705CR001/LD1
Subjects
HIV-1 outbreak
dried serum spots
new psychoactive substances
people who inject drugs
synthetic cathinones
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2020-05-27