image: AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. view more
Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
New Rochelle, NY, September 27, 2018--Diagnosis of HIV-1 infection in the 4-year old child of an HIV-negative mother led to a forensic analysis to determine the source of the infection and try to date the transmission of the virus. The results of genetic, phylogenetic, and serologic data analysis on both the father and son and the hypothesis for how the boy became infected are published in a study in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website through October 27, 2018.
The article entitled "Accidental Father-to-Son HIV-1 Transmission During the Seroconversion Period" was coauthored by Nuno Taveira, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal and Instituto Superior Ciências Saúde Egas Moniz Monte de Caparica, Portugal, and researchers from these institutions and from Hospital Prof. Dr. Fernando Fonseca EPE, Amadora, Portugal and Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM.
Based on comparative analysis of genetic, phylogenetic, and serologic data from the father and the son, the researchers concluded that the virus was accidentally transmitted to the son during the first days of the child's life. During this time of seroconversion, the father was being treated for infection with varicella-zooster virus (chicken pox) and syphilis when he developed large vesicles all over his body that profusely leaked fluids. The high virus production early in HIV infection would have made the fluids leaking from the father's skin blisters highly infectious. These infectious fluids could have come in contact with the newborn child causing this atypical HIV transmission event.
"Although this type of father-to-son HIV transmission event is rare, it is important that the general public realize that HIV is present in most bodily fluids and can be transmitted in atypical and unexpected ways," says Thomas Hope, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine (Chicago, IL). "In this case, the circumstances of fluids leaking from skin blisters with the high amount of HIV present in the first months of HIV infection led to the unfortunate infection of a newborn child."
###
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AI087520. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About the Journal
AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, published monthly online with open access options and in print, presents papers, reviews, and case studies documenting the latest developments and research advances in the molecular biology of HIV and SIV and innovative approaches to HIV vaccine and therapeutic drug research, including the development of antiretroviral agents and immune-restorative therapies. Content also explores the molecular and cellular basis of HIV pathogenesis and HIV/HTLV epidemiology. The Journal features rapid publication of emerging sequence information, reports on clinical trials of emerging HIV therapies, and images in HIV research. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including AIDS Patient Care and STDs, Viral Immunology, and Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
Journal
AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses