Molecular confirmation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 2 in HIV-seropositive subjects in south India.
Nested PCRs for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2 were compared with immunoblot test results. Twelve of 13 immunoblot-positive HIV-2 samples were positive by PCR. There were five INNO-LIA (Innogenetics, Zwijnaarde, Belgium) and/or HIVBLOT 2.2 (Genelabs, Singapore) samples that tested positive for dual infection. HIV-1 PCR was positive in all samples, while HIV-2 PCR was positive in two and RIBA (Chiron Corporation, San Diego, Calif.) was positive for HIV-2 in three samples. Thus the prevalence of HIV-2 is accurately estimated by the use of immunoblotting, but that of HIV-1 and -2 dual infection may be overestimated.
Kannangai
R
R
Departments of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India.
Ramalingam
S
S
Prakash
K J
KJ
Abraham
O C
OC
George
R
R
Castillo
R C
RC
Schwartz
D H
DH
Jesudason
M V
MV
Sridharan
G
G
D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction