SENSITIVITY OF UNITED-STATES HIV ANTIBODY TESTS FOR DETECTION OF HIV-1 GROUP-O INFECTIONS

Infections by highly divergent strains of HIV-1, first detected in cen tral Africa and grouped provisionally as group O, have not been reliab ly detected by certain European HIV screening tests. Serum specimens f rom eight probable group O infections from Cameroon were tested by ten HIV assays licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration. All assay s based on synthetic peptides or recombinant antigens failed to detect at least one of the infections; assays based on whole-virus lysates p erformed better. Divergent HIV strains may be undetected by current HI V tests. Thus active surveillance for and characterisation of HIV vari ants to evaluate and, when necessary, modify current tests is urgently needed.