Infectious Disease Reports

One of the major characteristics of HIV-1 is its high genetic variability and extensive heterogeneity. This characteristic is due to its molecular traits, which in turn allows it to vary, recombine, and diversify at a high frequency. As such, it generates complex molecular forms, termed recombinants, which evade the human immune system and so survive. There is no sequence constraint to the recombination pattern as it appears to occur at inter-group (between groups M and O), as well as inter- and intra-subtype within group M. Rapid emergence and active global transmission of HIV-1 recombinants, known as circulating recombinant forms (CRFs) and unique recombinant forms (URFs), requires urgent attention. To date, 55 CRFs have been reported around the world. The first CRF01_AE originated from Central Africa but spread widely in Asia. The most recent CRF; CRF55_01B is a recombinant form of CRF01_AE and subtype B, although its origin is yet to be publicly disclosed. HIV-1 recombination is an ongoing event and plays an indispensable role in HIV epidemics in different regions. Africa, Asia and South America are identified as recombination hot-spots. They are affected by continual emergence and co-circulation of newly emerging CRFs and URFs, which are now responsible for almost 20% of HIV-1 infections worldwide. Better understanding of recombinants is necessary to determine their biological and molecular attributes.

On 31 December 2019, China informed the World Health Organization they were facing a viral pneumonia epidemic of a new type of Coronavirus. Currently, 10 months later, more than 43,000,000 people have been infected, and about 1,150,000 deceased worldwide from the disease. Knowledge about the virus is updated daily, and its RNA was isolated from several human secretions, e.g., throat, saliva, pulmonary alveolar washing, and feces. So far, only one publication found the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in semen. In this 5-month cross-sectional study, we recruited 15 patients diagnosed with a positive nasal swab for SARS-CoV-2 with no or mild symptoms in our institution. A semen sample after a shower was retrieved and tested for viral RNA in the semen. The samples were tested for the viral RNA with RT-PCR with two different genetic probes. The samples were re-tested 24 h after the first test to confirm the results. The SARS-Cov-2 viral RNA was present in 1/15 patients [6.66%] in our sample. Even in a small sample, the RNA from SARS-CoV-2 can be isolated from human semen. This information should alert the scientific community and public health officials about a possible new form of transmission of the disease and long-term clinical effects on the population.

Since the first case of human monkeypox was diagnosed in 1970, the disease remained endemic in several countries in West and Central Africa. In 1996, there was a sudden increase in cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and since 2017 an ongoing outbreak in Nigeria took place, probably related to the population growth, human invasion of MPXV animal habitat reservoirs, and the waning of the cross-protection offered from smallpox immunization, later ending in 1980. Since May 2022, an unprecedented outbreak of human monkeypox has rapidly spread around the world, outside endemic regions of Africa, through new modes of transmission, showing differences in clinical features compared with previous reports. The 2022 MPXV strain belongs to the clade of West Africa but diverges from the original strain, making the virus more transmissible. The authors review the main milestones in more than 50 years of history of human monkeypox, from a rare viral zoonotic infection to a public health emergency.