Sequence analysis of near full-length HIV type 1 subtype D primary strains isolated in Cape Town, South Africa, from 1984 to 1986

South Africa has one of the fastest growing HIV-1 epidemics worldwide, consisting mostly of subtype C. However, HIV-1 subtype B and subtype D viruses were isolated in the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s. This study describes the amplification, cloning, and near full-length genome sequencing of four HIV-1 subtype D primary strains, isolated from 1984 to 1986 in Cape Town, in what seems to have been a small restricted subtype D epidemic in the country.