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HIV infection is a major problem in Indonesia. The number of people living with HIV has been increasing from year to year, especially among injecting drug users (IDUs). Since there were only limited data about molecular epidemiology profiles of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, a cross-sectional study involving 208 HIV-1-seropositive individuals was conducted in 2007 in Jakarta. The majority of participants were 16–30 years of age (64.9%) and 74.5% were male. The most frequent risk factor was injecting drug use (IDU) (45.7%) followed by heterosexual transmission (34.1%). Phylogenetic analysis of gag (p17 and p6) and env C2V3 regions showed 200 (96.2%) of 208 DNA samples were CRF01_AE and only 3 (1.4%) were subtype B. Five samples (2.4%) indicated discordant subtypes between the three aforementioned regions: three of them showed unique CRF01_AE/B recombination patterns in 2.3-kbp nucleotide sequences (from p17 to part of RT), including one sample showing similarity to CRF33_01B, reported previously in Malaysia. This study shows the current predominant subtype is CRF01_AE in every risk group, with a decreasing number of pure subtype B, and the first identification of CRF01_AE/B recombinant forms among HIV-1-seropositive Indonesians.

It has been reported that subtypes A throughout H of HIV-1 are circulating in the former Soviet Union. In this sequence note, we analyzed the genetic prevalence of HIV-1 among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Ukraine. The subjects studied included two individuals from Kiev and six individuals from Simferopol', the latter located in the Crimean Peninsula. We found that one of eight IDUs was infected with a CRF03 gagA/envB recombinant HIV-1 and was from Simferopol', whereas the others were infected with HIV-1 subtype A. The recombinant was closely related to other A/B recombinants reported previously, and had silent mutations in the V3 region, the same as other envB strains of HIV-1 circulating among IDUs in the former Soviet Union. The data supported reports that the Russian A/B recombinant HIV-1 was probably from Ukraine. This is the first report of a CRF03 gagA/envB recombinant HIV-1 found in Ukraine.