Hiv usually transmitted before people know - TheBody.com's Bulletin Boards

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - HIV infection is likely to be transmitted before people are even aware that they are carriers, UK researchers report in the January 3rd issue of AIDS.

"The study demonstrates that a significant proportion of new HIV-1 infections may be transmitted by those who themselves have only very recently been infected... and that such onward transmission is associated with the presence of other sexually transmitted infections," study co-author Dr. Deenan Pillay told Reuters Health.

Dr. Pillay of Royal Free and University College Medical School, London and colleagues came to this conclusion after studying 103 people with primary HIV infection.

Of this group, 99 were men and 90 of these were men who had sex with men. In all, viruses from 34% appeared within 15 phylogenetically related clusters.

Unprotected anal intercourse in the 3 months before diagnosis, the number of sexual contacts, high CD4 cell counts and a younger age were significantly associated with clustering.

High rates of sexually transmitted infections were seen in both groups, but there was a trend toward higher rates in the cluster group (42.9%) than those whose viruses were outside of the cluster (27.9%).

"Importantly," said Dr. Pillay, "this is a means by which transmissions occur before people know that they are infected, and therefore is not amenable to prevention by treatment, which otherwise would reduce infectivity -- and therefore likelihood of transmission."

Because of this, the researchers advocate information and awareness campaigns "to highlight the possible symptoms of primary HIV infection in groups with high rates of onward transmission."

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