title: HIV 2 infection among blood donors and other subjects in France. The "Retrovirus" Study Group of the French Society of Blood Transfusion.
abstract: During a 3 year period, from August 1985 to August 1988, 18 HIV 2-infected blood donors were detected in France as a result of systematic HIV 1 screening. These sera were characterized as HIV 2 by specific Western blot and synthetic peptides. Within the same period, 40 other HIV 2 infected subjects were identified by our study group, independently of blood donations. Thirty of these 58 subjects living in France originate from West Africa (8 blood donors), 3 (I blood donor) are Portuguese men who had lived in West Africa and 25 (9 blood donors) are of French origin; among these, 16 have had a known close contact with West Africa. When HIV 2-infected subjects were asymptomatic, cross reactivity between antibodies to HIV 2 and HIV 1 proteins was generally observed with the two-step ELISA assays using total HIV 1 proteins; it was poor with the competitive assays and variable with the assays using recombinant proteins. When the subjects had signs of immunodeficiency, cross reactivity decreased. The data confirm that HIV 2 is not widespread in France and that most of HIV 2-infected but asymptomatic subjects are recognized by several HIV 1 ELISA assays. Accordingly, systematic screening for HIV 2 with an additional test cannot be recommended at the present time, but a combined HIV 1 and HIV 2 test will be useful when available.
authors.affiliation: I.N.T.S., Paris.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Courouce
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barin
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baudelot
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chamaret
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gueguen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Janot
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lemaire
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maniez
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mesnier
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mouillot
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000354:Africa, Western; D001782:Blood Donors; D003429:Cross Reactions; D005602:France; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000276:immunology; D015498:HIV-2; D006801:Humans; D011174:Portugal; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D012191:Retroviridae Proteins