@article{Limnaios2022, abstract = {Our aim was to estimate the date of the origin and the transmission rates of the major local clusters of subtypes A1 and B in Greece. Phylodynamic analyses were conducted in 14 subtype A1 and 31 subtype B clusters. The earliest dates of origin for subtypes A1 and B were in 1982.6 and in 1985.5, respectively. The transmission rate for the subtype A1 clusters ranged between 7.54 and 39.61 infections/100 person years (IQR: 9.39, 15.88), and for subtype B clusters between 4.42 and 36.44 infections/100 person years (IQR: 7.38, 15.04). Statistical analysis revealed that the average difference in the transmission rate between the PWID and the MSM clusters was 6.73 (95% CI: 0.86 to 12.60; p = 0.026). Our study provides evidence that the date of introduction of subtype A1 in Greece was the earliest in Europe. Transmission rates were significantly higher for PWID than MSM clusters due to the conditions that gave rise to an extensive PWID HIV-1 outbreak ten years ago in Athens, Greece. Transmission rate can be considered as a valuable measure for public health since it provides a proxy of the rate of epidemic growth within a cluster and, therefore, it can be useful for targeted HIV prevention programs.}, author = {Limnaios, Stefanos and Kostaki, Evangelia Georgia and Adamis, Georgios and Astriti, Myrto and Chini, Maria and Mangafas, Nikos and Lazanas, Marios and Patrinos, Stavros and Metallidis, Simeon and Tsachouridou, Olga and Papastamopoulos, Vasileios and Kakalou, Eleni and Chatzidimitriou, Dimitrios and Antoniadou, Anastasia and Papadopoulos, Antonios and Psichogiou, Mina and Basoulis, Dimitrios and Gova, Maria and Pilalas, Dimitrios and Paraskeva, Dimitra and Chrysos, Georgios and Paparizos, Vasileios and Kourkounti, Sofia and Sambatakou, Helen and Bolanos, Vasileios and Sipsas, Nikolaos V. and Lada, Malvina and Barbounakis, Emmanouil and Kantzilaki, Evrikleia and Panagopoulos, Periklis and Maltezos, Efstratios and Drimis, Stelios and Sypsa, Vana and Lagiou, Pagona and Magiorkinis, Gkikas and Hatzakis, Angelos and Skoura, Lemonia and Paraskevis, Dimitrios}, doi = {10.3390/v14010101}, journal = {Viruses}, month = {jan}, pages = {101}, title = {Dating the Origin and Estimating the Transmission Rates of the Major HIV-1 Clusters in Greece: Evidence about the Earliest Subtype A1 Epidemic in Europe}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/v14010101}, volume = {14}, year = {2022} }