Longstanding presence of HIV-2 infection in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa).
We have retrospectively studied the seroprevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Guinea-Bissau in a sample of sera collected from the whole country in 1980. We tested a total of 1248 individuals and found 11 individuals who were seropositive for HIV-2 but there were no HIV-1 seropositive samples. The mean age of the HIV-2 seropositive people was significantly higher than the age of the seronegative individuals. In the different areas surveyed, the HIV-2 seroprevalence ranged from 0 to 2.5%. A central region of the country, grossly centred in the capital city of Bissau, presented the highest prevalence of HIV-2 seropositivity (>2%), which contrasts with its virtual absence from the more remote rural areas located near the borders with the neighbouring countries. The overall seroprevalence found for HIV-2 in this study is 0.9% (1.8%, when considering the adult seroprevalence only), which proves that the virus was definitely circulating in Guinea-Bissau at the beginning of the 1980s.
Unidade de Virologia, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. jp@ihmt.unl.pt
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Piedade
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Venenno
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Prieto
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Albuquerque
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Canas-Ferreira
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006169:Guinea-Bissau / Q000453:epidemiology; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D014505:Urban Population
D015483:HIV Antibodies