Victor Pimentel

Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine | IHMT · Department of Public Health

Background and Aims SARS‐CoV‐2 infection is a public health concern. Several aspects related to the pattern of infection remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the blood pressure pattern among blood donors exposed to SARS‐CoV‐2 in Luanda, Angola, a sub‐Saharan African country. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis containing 343 b...

Background and aims: Hypertension is a public health concern, mainly in resource-limited countries. We investigated the characteristics and risk factors related to high blood pressure in healthy blood donors from, Luanda, the capital city of Angola. Methods: This was a retrospective study that included 343 healthy donors from December 2019 to Se...

Background: Investigating the role of late presenters (LP) on HIV-1 transmission is important, as they can contribute to the onward spread of HIV-1 virus in the long period before diagnosis, when they are not aware of their HIV status Objective: To describe the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of HIV-1 infected individuals followed in...

HBV remains a public health concern. Blood donors screened for HBsAg along with AST/ALT could play a key in providing safe blood products. We investigated the features related to HBV infection among rejected blood donors in Luanda, Angola. This was a cross-sectional study conducted with 164 rejected donors. Donors were screened for HBsAg from March...

In Portugal, the genetic diversity, origin of HBV and the Portuguese role in the dissemination of HBV worldwide were never investigated. In this work, we studied the epidemic history and transmission dynamics of HBV genotypes that are endemic in Portugal. HBV pol gene was sequenced from 130 patients followed in Lisbon. HBV genotype A was the most p...

Background SARS-CoV-2 infection is a global public health concern. Several aspects related to the pattern of infection remain unclear. Herein, we investigated the blood pressure pattern among blood donors exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in Luanda, the capital city of Angola, a sub-Saharan African country. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis contai...

Hypertension is a public health concern, mainly in resource-limited countries. We investigated the characteristics and risk factors related to high blood pressure in healthy blood donors from Angola. This was a multicentre retrospective study that includes 343 donors from December 2019 to September 2020. Men represented 93% of the population. The m...

Emerging infectious diseases are one of the main threats to public health, with the potential to cause a pandemic when the infectious agent manages to spread globally. The first major pandemic to appear in the 20th century was the influenza pandemic of 1918, caused by the influenza A H1N1 strain that is characterized by a high fatality rate. Anothe...

Background The increased use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has decreased mortality and morbidity of HIV-1 infected people but increasing levels of HIV drug resistance threatens the success of ART regimens. Conversely, late presentation can impact treatment outcomes, health costs, and potential transmission of HIV. Objective To describe the patte...

Brazil ranks as third in terms of total number of reported SARS-CoV-2 cases globally. The COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil was characterised by the co-circulation of multiple variants as a consequence of multiple independent introduction events occurring through time. Here, we describe the SARS-CoV-2 variants that are currently circulating and co-circul...

Objective To describe and analyze transmitted drug resistance (TDR) between 2014 and 2019 in newly infected patients with HIV-1 in Portugal and to characterize its transmission networks. Methods Clinical, socioepidemiological, and risk behavior data were collected from 820 newly diagnosed patients in Portugal between September 2014 and December 20...

The Zika virus (ZIKV) disease caused a public health emergency of international concern that started in February 2016. The overall number of ZIKV-related cases increased until November 2016, after which it declined sharply. While the evaluation of the potential risk and impact of future arbovirus epidemics remains challenging, intensified surveilla...

Objective: To investigate the dynamics of phylogenetic transmission clusters involving immigrants of Portuguese Speaking Countries living in Portugal. Design/methods: We included genomic sequences, socio-demographic and clinical data from 772 HIV migrants followed in Portugal between 2001 and 2017. To reconstruct HIV-1 Transmission Clusters (TCs...

In Portugal, the genetic diversity, origin of HBV, and the Portuguese role in the dissemination of HBV worldwide were never investigated. In this work, we studied the epidemic history and transmission dynamics of HBV genotypes that are endemic in Portugal. HBV pol gene was sequenced from 130 patients followed in Lisbon. HBV genotype A (HBV/A) was t...

To control the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) set the 90-90-90 target to be reached by 2020. One major threat to those goals is late presentation, which is defined as an individual presenting a TCD4+ count lower than 350 cells/mm3 or an AIDS-defining event. The present study aims to identify determi...

Brazil experienced a large dengue virus (DENV) epidemic in 2019, highlighting a continuous struggle with effective control and public health preparedness. Using Oxford Nanopore sequencing, we led field and classroom initiatives for the monitoring of DENV in Brazil, generating 227 novel genome sequences of DENV1-2 from 85 municipalities (2015-2019)....

Brazil experienced a large dengue virus (DENV) epidemic in 2019, highlighting a continuous struggle with effective control and public health preparedness. Using Oxford Nanopore sequencing, we led field and classroom initiatives for the monitoring of DENV in Brazil, generating 227 novel genome sequences of DENV1-2 from 85 municipalities (2015-2019)....

Background: Undiagnosed HIV-1 patients still account for 25% of worldwide HIV patients. Studying late presenters for HIV care may help to identify characteristics of such patients. Objective: The present study aims to identify factors associated with late presentation (LP) and late presentation with advanced disease (LPAD) based on a population...

Introduction: Treatment for All recommendations have allowed access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for an increasing number of patients. This minimizes the transmission of infection but can potentiate the risk of transmitted (TDR) and acquired drug resistance (ADR). Objective: To study the trends of TDR and ADR in patients followed up in Port...

Background: Brazil has experienced a large dengue virus (DENV) epidemic in 2019, highlighting a continual struggle with effective control and public health preparedness. Brazil is a world leader in real-time genomic surveillance of arboviruses, although such technology and expertise remains inaccessible for the vast majority of local researchers an...

Background: Undiagnosed HIV-1 patients still account for 25% of worldwide HIV patients. Studying late presenters for HIV care may help to identify characteristics of such patients. Objective: The present study aims to identify factors associated with late presentation (LP) and late presentation with advanced disease (LPAD) based on a population of...

Background Treatment for all recommendations has allowed access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to an increasing number of patients. This minimizes transmission of infection but can potentiate the risk for development of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) and acquired drug resistance (ADR). Objective To study the trends of TDR and ADR in patients...

Migration is associated with HIV-1 vulnerability. Objectives: To identify long-term trends in HIV-1 molecular epidemiology and antiretroviral drug resistance (ARV) among migrants followed up in Portugal Methods: 5177 patients were included between 2001 and 2017. Rega, Scuel, Comet, and jPHMM algorithms were used for subtyping. Transmitted drug re...

Despite the rapid spread of the Zika virus throughout the Americas in 2015, its phylogenetic classification is limited to either an African or Asian genotype. This classification no longer reflects the present genetic diversity of circulating strains and their geographic reach. Using 414 publicly available Zika virus genomes from 40 different count...

The large diversity of new tick-borne phleboviruses, and the negative impacts of the virulent viruses on human/animal health have led to a growing interest in their analysis. In this report, new insights are brought out into the diversity of putative phleboviruses circulating in Portugal (both the continental territory and the islands of São Miguel...

BEST HOPE is a project to construct a cohort of newly diagnosed HIV patients in Portugal: BEST HOPE aims are: 1) to analyze the prevalence and characteristics of TDR in newly diagnosed HIV patients, and 2) to describe and analyze risk factors associated with HIV infection and transmission of drug resistance in Portugal.

BEST HOPE is a project to construct a cohort of newly diagnosed HIV patients in Portugal: BEST HOPE aims are: 1) to analyze the prevalence and characteristics of TDR in newly diagnosed HIV patients, and 2) to describe and analyze risk factors associated with HIV infection and transmission of drug resistance in Portugal.

BEST HOPE is a project to construct a cohort of newly diagnosed HIV patients in Portugal: BEST HOPE aims are: 1) to analyze the prevalence and characteristics of TDR in newly diagnosed HIV patients, and 2) to describe and analyze risk factors associated with HIV infection and transmission of drug resistance in Portugal.

A recently diagnosed 22-year-old female with no history of transmission risk factors prompted a thorough investigation of possible alternative risk factors. As the patient had evidence of advanced disease and laboratory data compatible with long-standing infection, past events were reviewed. About 10 years ago the patient shared manicure utensils w...

HIV-1 molecular epidemiology studies carried out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have identified the prevalence of subtypes B, F1 and BF1 recombinants. A high percentage of HIV-1 subtype B isolates in Rio de Janeiro harbor GWG motif at the V3 tip (B" variant) instead of the canonical GPG motif (B variant). To trace the dynamics of the HIV-1 variants over...