Another Reminder to Consider HIV-2 Infection

HIV-2 infection differs from HIV-1 infection in clinically important ways: Viral loads tend to be lower, progression to AIDS is less likely, and the virus is intrinsically resistant to first-generation nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and to enfuvirtide. In some parts of the U.S. (most notably, New York City; see JW AIDS Clin Care Nov 22 2010), health officials have begun to change their HIV surveillance efforts to better differentiate between HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection. Now, CDC investigators have reevaluated all HIV-2 diagnoses reported between 1988 and mid-2010, to determine which were truly HIV-2.

The investigators classified cases as HIV-2 infection if they met any of the following criteria:

• HIV-1/HIV-2 type–differentiating …