HIV Type 2 Pathogenicity Is Not Related to Subtype in Rural Guinea Bissau

Abstract

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.^1,2 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,³ these do not appear to be contributing significantly to the nonpathogenic clinical phenotype in this population.