HIV-2 in the United Kingdom--a review

Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) was first recognised in 1986 and subsequently the infection was shown to be widespread in West Africa. There have been few case reports from countries outside the African continent. In North America and Europe the highest number of infections have been in Portugal and France. Twelve HIV-2 infections have been identified in the United Kingdom (UK) and nine of the twelve had some connection with Africa, mostly West Africa; in three cases only "sub-Saharan Africa" was stated on the report, and one was from Mozambique. The other three HIV-2 infections were identified as follows: one in stored sera from a man who died in 1978, one in a child from Portugal who was diagnosed in the UK as having Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1985, and one in a homosexual man who was tested unlinked and anonymously in London in 1987. It is not known how many of the total number of UK HIV-2 infections are represented by these twelve, but among large numbers of blood donors and people attending genitourinary medicine clinics the occurrence of infection was rare.