Molecular epidemiology: HIV-1 and HCV sequences from Libyan outbreak.
de Oliveira T., Pybus OG., Rambaut A., Salemi M., Cassol S., Ciccozzi M., Rezza G., Gattinara GC., D'Arrigo R., Amicosante M., Perrin L., Colizzi V., Perno CF., Benghazi Study Group None.
In 1998, outbreaks of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were reported in children attending Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi, Libya. Here we use molecular phylogenetic techniques to analyse new virus sequences from these outbreaks. We find that the HIV-1 and HCV strains were already circulating and prevalent in this hospital and its environs before the arrival in March 1998 of the foreign medical staff (five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor) who stand accused of transmitting the HIV strain to the children.