Partner Tracing Survey and Phylogenetic Analysis Among Newly Diagnosed HIV-Positive MSM - Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China, 2019-2022.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS TOPIC?: Partner tracing (PT) represents an established public health strategy for identifying undiagnosed individuals with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and contributes to controlling sustained HIV transmission.

WHAT IS ADDED BY THIS REPORT?: Partner tracing among newly diagnosed HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) demonstrates effectiveness in identifying undiagnosed infected individuals, with regular sexual partners showing higher likelihood of HIV-positive detection. However, phylogenetic analysis revealed that only a small proportion of epidemiologically linked pairs exhibited genetic linkage.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE?: Sustained implementation and broader application of partner tracing may serve a critical role in HIV epidemic control by facilitating early identification of undiagnosed infections and interrupting potential transmission chains. Integrating partner tracing with phylogenetic analysis enhances the capacity to distinguish actual transmission chains from coincidental behavioral associations, thereby improving transmission linkage identification accuracy and informing more targeted intervention strategies.