viruses Review The Role of Phylogenetics in Discerning HIV-1 Mixing among Vulnerable Populations and Geographic Regions in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review George M. Nduva 1,2,† , Jamirah Nazziwa 1,† , Amin S. Hassan 1,2, Eduard J. Sanders 2,3 and Joakim Esbjörnsson 1,3,* 1 Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden;
[email protected] (G.M.N.);
[email protected] (J.N.);
[email protected] (A.S.H.) 2 Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi 80108, Kenya;
[email protected] 3 Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, The University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK * Correspondence:
[email protected] † Authors with equal contribution. Abstract: To reduce global HIV-1 incidence, there is a need to understand and disentangle HIV-1 transmission dynamics and to determine the geographic areas and populations that act as hubs or drivers of HIV-1 spread. In Sub-Saharan Africa (sSA), the region with the highest HIV-1 burden, information about such transmission dynamics is sparse. Phylogenetic inference is a powerful method for the study of HIV-1 transmission networks and source attribution. In this review, we Citation: Nduva, G.M.; Nazziwa, J.; assessed available phylogenetic data on mixing between HIV-1 hotspots (geographic areas and Hassan, A.S.; Sanders, E.J.; Esbjörnsson, J. The Role of populations with high HIV-1 incidence and prevalence) and areas or populations with lower HIV-1 Phylogenetics in Discerning HIV-1 burden in sSA. We searched PubMed and identified and reviewed 64 studies on HIV-1 transmission Mixing among Vulnerable dynamics within and between risk groups and geographic locations in sSA (published 1995–2021).