Kingston Hanley, Chohan Bhavna H, Mbogo Loice, Bukusi David, Monroe-Wise Aliza, Sambai Betsy, Omballa Victor, Tram Khai Hoan, Guthrie Brandon, Giandhari Jennifer, Masyuko Sarah, Bosire Rose, Sinkele William, de Oliveira Tulio, Scott John, Farquhar Carey, Herbeck Joshua T
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2025 Feb;41(2):76-86. doi: 10.1089/aid.2024.0036. Epub 2024 Dec 16.
Sexual and/or injecting partners of people who inject drugs (PWID) may have an elevated risk of HIV infection either from sharing a transmission network or an epidemiological environment. We estimated the degree of similarity between HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) sequences from PWID and their partners to assess whether partner-based recruitment identifies sexual or injecting partners within transmission networks. We used assisted partner services (APS) to recruit sexual and injecting partners of PWID living with HIV in Kenya and evaluated trends in the TN93 distances (an adjusted measure of sequence similarity) of the HIV-1 and HCV sequences from partner pairs. Of 135 unique pairs identified, 2 sexual, 2 injecting, and 3 unique sexual and injecting partner pairs had HIV sequences within a TN93 distance of 0.045, and 4 unique partner pairs had HCV sequences with distances <0.015. Sexual but not injecting partner pairs had HIV sequences with significantly smaller distances than non-partners, on average, but injecting partner pairs did have significantly smaller HCV-4a patristic distances than non-partners. APS recruitment partly reflects the HIV transmission network among sexual, but not injecting, partners of PWID. The relationship between the injecting partner recruitment and molecular networks is stronger for HCV than HIV and may reflect some recent parenteral HCV transmission. Our results show the importance of continued focus on reducing sexual HIV transmission among PWID and on education and services to address HCV transmission through needle- and/or equipment-sharing.
注射吸毒者（PWID）的性伴侣和/或注射伙伴可能因共享传播网络或流行病学环境而面临更高的艾滋病毒感染风险。我们估计了PWID及其伙伴的艾滋病毒和丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）序列之间的相似程度，以评估基于伙伴的招募是否能识别传播网络中的性伴侣或注射伙伴。我们利用辅助伙伴服务（APS）招募了肯尼亚感染艾滋病毒的PWID的性伴侣和注射伙伴，并评估了伙伴对中HIV-1和HCV序列的TN93距离（序列相似性的一种调整度量）的趋势。在识别出的135个独特伙伴对中，有2对性伴侣、2对注射伙伴以及3对独特的性伴侣和注射伙伴对的艾滋病毒序列的TN93距离在0.045以内，有4对独特伙伴对的HCV序列距离小于0.015。性伴侣对而非注射伙伴对的艾滋病毒序列平均距离显著小于非伙伴对，但注射伙伴对的HCV-4a祖源距离确实显著小于非伙伴对。APS招募部分反映了PWID的性伴侣而非注射伙伴中的艾滋病毒传播网络。注射伙伴招募与分子网络之间的关系在HCV方面比在艾滋病毒方面更强，这可能反映了近期一些经肠道外传播的HCV情况。我们的结果表明持续关注减少PWID之间的性传播艾滋病毒以及关注通过针头和/或设备共享来应对HCV传播的教育和服务的重要性。
