HIV-1 prevalence still low in Slovakia

Slovakia, an Eastern European country with a population of 5.3 million, "... may still be considered as one of the countries with a low incidence of HIV infection," according to a team led by Dr. V. Zachar of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The results of their study appeared in the July 20, 1996, issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. Zachar performed genetic analysis of the V3 env region of HIV isolates collected in 1993 from 11 HIV-positive homosexual men. Slovakia's comprehensive testing program "... provides assurance that the prevalence of infection is not underestimated due to a massive underreporting." Along with a low incidence, Zachar found that HIV-1 infections in Slovakia also appear to be restricted to subtype B, which is also the predominant HIV subtype in North America and Western Europe. Recent reports of five or more subtypes of HIV in Great Britain suggested that it is likely that the spectrum of HIV variants will also broaden in Slovakia along with an increasing number of infections. Recently reported new cases of HIV infection transmitted by heterosexual contact, reflected a "... marked shift in the pattern of HIV epidemic", which was previously almost exclusively restricted to the homosexual population in the western region of Slovakia. Zachar also stressed the importance of continued surveillance of the various HIV subtypes in this country.