Compared prevalence of infections by HIV-1 and HIV-2 during a 2-year period in suburban and rural areas of Ivory Coast.

Abstract

The testing for human immune deficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) antibodies of 794 sera collected in July-August 1985 in the four regions of Korhogo, Bondoukou, Man, and Bouaké in Ivory Coast and the collection and testing for HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibodies of 1,126 sera collected in July-August 1987 in the same regions and age groups showed a remarkable stability in the prevalence of infection by these two retroviruses (0.7 and 0.4% in 1985 vs. 0.9 and 0.2% in 1987, respectively, for HIV-1 and HIV-2) in rural areas. In contrast, the increase in prevalence of both HIV-1 (from 1 to 1.9%) and HIV-2 (from 0.8 to 1.3%) from 1985 to 1987 in the urban population was accompanied by a sharp increase during these 2 years of the number of acquired immune deficiency syndromes in regional hospitals.