HIV type 2 pathogenicity is not related to subtype in rural Guinea Bissau.
Data from an MRC case-control study in rural Guinea Bissau suggest older HIV-2 carriers (aged 55 to 80 years) appear, over a period of 2 years, to have a mortality similar to that of uninfected controls, whereas in HIV-2 carriers under the age of 55 there is a significantly higher mortality, compared with uninfected controls. Genotyping of viruses from both groups revealed only subtype a to be circulating. Thus, although putative nonpathogenic HIV-2 subtypes have been described in patients from West Africa, these do not appear to be contributing significantly to the nonpathogenic clinical phenotype in this population.
Xiang
Z
Z
Department of Virology, London Hospital Medical College, England.
Ariyoshi
K
K
Wilkins
A
A
Dias
F
F
Whittle
H
H
Breuer
J
J
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015750:Genes, gag; D006169:Guinea-Bissau; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010802:Phylogeny; D012424:Rural Population