Longstanding presence of HIV-2 infection in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa)

We have retrospectively studied the seroprevalence of the human immunodefic iency Virus (HIV) in Guinea-Bissau in a sample of sera collected from the w hole country in 1980. We tested a total of 1248 individuals and found Il in dividuals who were seropositive for HIV-2 but there were no HIV-I seroposit ive samples. The mean age of the HIV-2 seropositive people was significantl y higher than the age of the seronegative individuals. In the different are as surveyed, the HIV-2 seroprevalence ranged from 0 to 2.5%. A central regi on of the country, grossly centred in the capital city of Bissau, presented the highest prevalence of HIV-2 seropositivity ( > 2%), which contrasts wi th its virtual absence from the more remote rural areas located near the bo rders with the neighbouring countries. The overall seroprevalence found for HIV-2 in this study is 0.9% (1.8%, when considering the adult seroprevalen ce only), which proves that the virus was definitely circulating in Guinea- Bissau at the beginning of the 1980s. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All ri ghts reserved.