HIV-2 in West Africa in 1966 [letter].

Dr. Kawamura and colleagues claim that HIV-2 has been present in West Africa since 1966 or earlier. Of 197 sera collected from Nigeria in 1967 2 (1.02%) were confirmed positive by western blot for antibodies to HIV-2. During the preceding 3 years the authors studied 4213 serum samples for HIV-2. The samples were from subjects who lived in different parts of Nigeria from Lagos in the south to Maiduguri in the north and included patients with a variety of clinical syndromes university students female prostitutes and pregnant women attending routine antenatal clinics. The sera were initially screened by ELISA. Confirmation of positive samples was done by western blot. 23 sera (0.55%) were positive by ELISA and 3 (0.07%) were confirmed by western blot. One of the samples was from a pregnant woman. She delivered a healthy baby 5 months later and has remained well to date. Serum from the baby was positive for HIV-2 by ELISA but negative by western blot. These findings cast doubt on the claim by Kawamura and colleagues that HIV-2 might have existed in West Africa as early as 1966. If the West Africa situation was parallel to that in Central Africa then there would have been a vast increase in HIV-2 infection in West Africa. This has not happened the frequency by all accounts remaining low in every part of the sub-region. Caution must be exercised when interpreting AIDS-related data in Africa to avoid unjustified stigmatization. (Authors)