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High level of HIV‐2 false positivity in KwaZulu‐Natal province: A region of South Africa with a very high HIV‐1 subtype C prevalence
Author(s) -
Singh Lavanya,
Parboosing Raveen,
Manasa Justen,
Moodley Pravi,
de Oliveira Tulio
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.23716
Subject(s) - seroprevalence , serology , virology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , epidemiology , medicine , antibody , viral disease , lentivirus , immunology , biology
Human immunodeficiency virus 2 (HIV‐2) is found predominantly in West Africa. It is not unlikely, however, that HIV‐2 may also be found in South Africa, due to the influx of immigrants into this country. It is important to distinguish between HIV‐1 and HIV‐2 since the clinical courses and treatment responses of these viruses are different. Routine serological methods for diagnosing HIV do not differentiate between HIV‐1 and ‐2 infections, while rapid tests, viral load quantification and PCR are HIV‐type—specific. The objective of this study was to describe the seroprevalence and molecular epidemiology of HIV‐2 in KwaZulu‐Natal, one of the regions with the highest HIV prevalence in the world and home of the two largest harbors in South Africa. HIV‐1 positive samples were screened for antibodies against HIV‐2, using a rapid test. The confirmation of HIV‐2 positive samples was done by PCR. Of the 2,123 samples screened, 319 (15%) were identified as positive by the rapid test. None of these samples were confirmed positive by PCR. To explore this discrepancy in the results, a subset (n = 52) of the rapid HIV‐2 positive samples was subjected to Western blotting. Thirty‐seven (71%) of these were positive, yielding an overall HIV‐2 seroprevalence of 10.6%. Three out of 28 (10.7%) Western blot positive samples were positive by a Pepti‐LAV assay. This discrepancy between serological and molecular confirmation may be attributed to non‐specific or cross‐reacting antibodies. The use of rapid tests and Western blots for HIV‐2 diagnosis in South Africa should be interpreted with caution. J. Med. Virol. 85:2065–2071, 2013 . © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Medical Virology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.