Plasma viral load in HIV-1 and HIV-2 singly and dually infected individuals in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

Investigators compared plasma HIV RNA load between patients infected with HIV-1 and HIV-2 in Guinea Bissau, which has a high prevalence and incidence of infection with the two viruses. The study involved 102 individuals, including 19 HIV-1 and 29 HIV-2 seroincident cases tested at a median of less than two years after seroconversion. There were also seroprevalent cases with single (nine HIV-1 cases and 31 HIV-2 cases) or dual (14 cases) infections. The authors determined that the viral set point was 28 times lower in individuals who recently seroconverted to HIV-2 than in recent HIV-1 seroconverters, even in symptomatic stages of the infections. People with dual infection had lower plasma HIV-1 RNA levels than singly infected subjects, the researchers found.

Ref: Andersson S; Norrgren H; Da Silva Z et al. Archives of Internal Medicine Online (27/11/00) Vol. 160, No. 21.