No Difference in Clinical Progression between Patients Infected with the Predominant Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Circulating Recombinant Form (CRF) 02_AG Strain and Patients Not Infected with CRF02_AG, in Western and West‐Central Africa: A Four‐Year Prospective Multicenter Study

To compare human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 disease progression in patients infected by the predominant strain circulating recombinant form (CRF) 02_AG in western and west-central Africa and in patients infected by other strains, a prospective multicenter cohort study was conducted in Cameroon and Senegal. Among the 335 patients, a broad HIV-1 group M subtype diversity was observed in the envelope V3-V5 region, but strain CRF02_AG predominated in both Cameroon and Senegal (61.2% and 62.9%, respectively; P<.8). Multivariate analyses showed no difference between patients infected by CRF02 strains and those infected by other strains in terms of survival (adjusted hazards ratio [HR], 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76-1.78; P=.5), clinical disease progression (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.50-1.25; P=.3), or square root CD4 cell decline (regression coefficient, -0.01; 95% CI, -0.82 to 0.81; P=.9). This study suggests that the predominance of HIV-1 CRF02_AG strain in western and west-central Africa should have no major clinical consequences.