HIV subtypes in newly reported HIV-infected cases in Dehong Prefecture of Yunnan Province during 2017 to 2019

Objective To determine the trend and influencing factors of HIV subtypes in newly reported HIV/AIDS cases in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture （Dehong Prefecture） from 2017 to 2019.

Methods RNA extraction was conducted among newly reported HIV/AIDS cases in Dehong Prefecture from 2017 to 2019 whose plasma volume was more than 200 μL. The gag， env and pol genes were amplified by using RT-PCR and then sequenced to determine the subtypes.

Results A total of 3 287 HIV-infected cases were newly reported in Dehong from 2017 to 2019. The HIV gag， env and pol genotypes were determined in 1 813 cases. The major subtypes were subtype C （28.4%，515/ 1 813）， recombination form BC （22.0%，398/1 813） and CRF_01AE （18.1%，329/1 813）. Furthermore， the proportion of subtype B， subtype C and CRF01_AE decreased over years， whereas 01/BC， CRF07_BC and CRF08_BC increased over years in both Chinese and Burmese patients （χ²=75.212，P<0.001）. There were significant differences in gender， age， marital status， ethnicity， educational level and transmission route among Chinese and Burmese HIV-infected cases with diverse HIV genotypes （all P<0.05）.

Conclusion HIV subtypes in Dehong change over time， which demonstrates that the proportion of BC recombinant subtypes and unique recombinant subtypes increased significantly.