About the Authors

Ivailo Alexiev Ivanov

Ivoalexiev@yahoo.com

Affiliation National Reference Laboratory of HIV, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Danail Beshkov

Affiliation National Reference Laboratory of HIV, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Anupama Shankar

Affiliation Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Debra L. Hanson

Affiliation Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Dimitrios Paraskevis

Affiliation National Retrovirus Reference Center, Department of Hygiene Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Viara Georgieva

Affiliation National Reference Laboratory of HIV, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Lyudmila Karamacheva

Affiliation National Reference Laboratory of HIV, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Hristo Taskov

Affiliation National Reference Laboratory of HIV, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Tonka Varleva

Affiliation Program “Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS”, Ministry of Health, Sofia, Bulgaria

Ivaylo Elenkov

Affiliation Hospital for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria

Mariana Stoicheva

Affiliation Medical University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Daniela Nikolova

Affiliation Medical University, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Varna, Bulgaria

William M. Switzer

Affiliation Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: IAI. Performed the experiments: IAI. Analyzed the data: IAI DLH WMS AS DP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: IAI LK IE MS DN DB VG HT TV DLH AS WMS. Wrote the paper: WMS DLH IAI.