[AIDS physiopathology and epidemiology of the infection with the LAV virus]

LAV is the causative agent of AIDS. Its biological properties, assessed in vitro, fully account for the major immunological abnormalities which characterize the disease. LAV is a lentivirus which presents a selective tropism for T4+ lymphocytes, the very cells that are destroyed in AIDS. Its replication is associated with inhibition of lymphocyte proliferative capacity and with a cytopathic effect. In most instances, LAV infection is silent, for years at least, or it can result in various clinical syndromes among which AIDS is the most serious but the less frequent. Such a polymorphism can be explained by LAV biological properties and by the conjunction of numerous cofactors.