title: Monitoring blood donors for HIV-2 infection by testing anti-HIV-1 reactive sera.
abstract: Anti-HIV-1 EIA tests currently used for screening blood donors in the United States are estimated to detect 55 to 91% of HIV-2 infections; Western blots for HIV-1 antibodies may be positive, negative or indeterminate with HIV-2-positive sera. We reasoned that we could exploit the cross-reactivity of the anti-HIV-1 EIA as a means to monitor the blood supply for the appearance of HIV-2 infected or co-infected persons, and thus decide if and when routine HIV-2 screening should be adopted. We tested 913 anti-HIV-1-reactive donor sera using an anti-HIV-2 screening EIA, with confirmation by an anti-HIV-2 env-peptide EIA and an anti-HIV-2 Western blot. These 913 sera were derived from anti-HIV-1 screening of approximately 242,000 donations over a three year period. No HIV-2 infections were identified. This approach may warrant adoption in blood centers serving populations with persons from countries where HIV-2 is prevalent.
authors.affiliation: Irwin Memorial Blood Centers, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Busch
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schable
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Perkins
mesh_terms: D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D001782:Blood Donors; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006800:Deltaretrovirus Infections / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission*; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000276:immunology; D015684:Gene Products, pol / Q000276:immunology; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D015683:Gene Products, gag; D015684:Gene Products, pol; D015483:HIV Antibodies