HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

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Researchers in Rotterdam note that a growing number of patients in western Europe are infected with HIV-2. They write that at their facility, they track 630 patients who are seropositive for HIV-1, 14 seropositive for HIV-2, and six who are seropositive for both HIV-1 and HIV-2. Each of the HIV-2-seropositive individuals has links to a group of West African immigrants now living in or around Rotterdam. Here, the researchers report, however, the failure of antiretroviral therapy in two treatment-naive patients who were dually infected. According to the authors, there was no decrease in plasma HIV-2 RNA in the first patient, while the second patient saw an initial decrease from 2,700 copies to an undetectable level, followed by a rebound to 48,000 copies per milliliter. The scientists determined that the HIV-2 and HIV-1 infections had replicated before treatment began. Therefore, treatment should not be started in such cases without taking into account the need for careful therapy that will be active against both viruses.

Editor's Note: from The New England Journal of Medicine