标题：Building up a collaborative network for the surveillance of HIV genetic diversity in Italy. A pilot study Nunzia Sanarico, Stefania D’Amato, Orietta Picconi, Barbara Ensoli, Stefano Buttò and the Italian Network for HIV Characterization
摘要：Introduction. Prevalence of infection with HIV-1 non-B subtypes in Italy has been reportedto raise, due to increased migration flows and travels. HIV-1 variants show differentbiological and immunological properties that impact on disease progression rate,response to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and sensitivity of diagnostic tests with importantimplications for public health. Therefore, a constant surveillance of the dynamics ofHIV variants in Italy should be a high public health priority. Organization of surveillancestudies requires building up a platform constituted of a network of clinical centers, laboratoriesand institutional agencies, able to properly collect samples for the investigationof HIV subtypes heterogeneity and to provide a database with reliable demographic,clinical, immunological and virological data.Aim. We here report our experience in building up such a platform, co-ordinated by theNational AIDS Center of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, taking advantage of a pilotstudy aimed at evaluating HIV subtypes diversity in populations of HIV-infected migrantpeople in Italy.Materials and methods. Four hundred and thirty four HIV-infected migrants were enrolledin 9 Italian clinical centers located throughout the Italian territory. Standard OperatingProcedures (SOPs) for sample collection were provided by the National AIDSCenter to each clinical center. In addition, clinical centers were required to fill up a casereport form (crf) for each patient, which included demographic, clinical, immunologicaland virological information.Results. All centers properly collected and stored samples from each enrolled individual.Overall, the required information was correctly provided for more than 90% of the patients.However, some fields of the crf, particularly those including information on thelast HIV-negative antibody test and presence of co-infections, were properly filled up inless than 80% of the enrolled migrants. Centers from Northern and Central Italy showeda better tendency to report correct information in the crf than centers from the South.These results provide evidence that procedures for establishing a platform for the surveillanceof HIV subtype heterogeneity are affordable by all the components of the networkand lay the ground for the organization of a broader HIV subtypes surveillance in Italy.
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