title: Absence of antibodies to HIV-2/HTLV-4 in six central African nations.
abstract: We studied 1508 individuals from Zaire, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, and Cameroon for antibodies to HIV-2/HTLV-4. AIDS, ARC, other disease or tumor patients and healthy people were sampled from 1984-1986. By radioimmunoprecipitation and SDS/PAGE analysis and/or Western blot we failed to find any samples with specific antibodies to HIV-2/HTLV-4 indicative of infection. In contrast, 363 of these 1508 individuals demonstrated antibodies to HIV-1/HTLV-3B by the same serologic assays. HIV-2/HTLV-4 infection appears to be quite rare in Central Africa. AIDS and related syndromes in this study were exclusively correlated with HIV-1 infection. Studies in West Africa have shown high rates of infection with HIV-2/HTLV-4 where cases of AIDS are still relatively uncommon. These results indicate that HIV-2/HTLV-4 has a distinct geographic distribution from that of HIV-1 in Africa. Further studies are necessary to better define the pathogenicity and natural history of this distinct new virus, HIV-2/HTLV-4.
mesh_terms: D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002063:Burundi; D002163:Cameroon; D017977:Deltaretrovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology; D006800:Deltaretrovirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology; D015483:HIV Antibodies; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007630:Kenya; D013636:Tanzania; D015024:Zambia
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D015483:HIV Antibodies