Multiple HIV-1 subtypes were found circulating in Suqian district of Jiangsu province, China

Jiangsu province has severe HIV-1 epidemic in China. Suqian which is located in north of the province has limited HIV epidemic information. Therefore, the current work aimed to characterize the epidemic details in the area. 196 plasma samples were collected from treated HIV-1 positive cases and viral RNA was extracted. Then HIV partial pol genes (nucleotide 2147-3462 by using HXB2 as calibrator) were amplified and sequenced. Finally, 84 partial pol genes were successfully obtained. The subtyping results indicate that multiple HIV-1 subtypes are circulating in Suqian district. Thereinto, CRF01_AE has been the dominant stains here and belonged to multiple lineages of CRF01_AE identified in China previously. Moreover, there is a high level of HIV drug resistance. All these results suggest HIV-1 epidemic in Suqian is rather complex and more measures must be performed for prevention and intervention in the area.