HIV-2 INFECTION WITH A LONG ASYMPTOMATIC PERIOD

We give details of a patient infected with HIV-2 which had what we bel ieve to be the longest asymptomatic period so far reported. The infect ion was probably acquired through a blood transfusion in Africa 27 yea rs ago. At present the patient remains asymytomatic and her cellular d efence mechanisms, evaluated by CD4+ lymphocyte counts and hypersensit ivity skin tests, are nor severely compromised. HIV-2 has some distinc t epidemiological, clinical and biological features which are differen t from the related HIV-1 and deserve investigation in order for its na tural history to be better understood.