10 Facts About HIV-2

HIV-1 is related to viruses found in chimpanzees and gorillas living in western Africa, while HIV-2 viruses are related to viruses found in the sooty mangabey, a vulnerable West African primate.

Likewise, HIV-2 viruses are thought to be less virulent and transmissible than HIV-1 M group viruses, although HIV-2 is known to cause AIDS.

The first identification of HIV-2 occurred in 1985 in Senegal by microbiologist Souleymane Mboup and his collaborators.

The first confirmed case of HIV-2 was a Portuguese man who was treated at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases and later died in 1987.

HIV-2 was believed to have been exposed to the disease in Guinea-Bissau where he lived between 1956 and 1966.

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HIV-2 is closely related to simian immunodeficiency virus endemic in sooty mangabeys, a monkey species inhabiting the forests of Littoral West Africa.

Phylogenetic analyses show that the virus most closely related to the two strains of HIV-2 which spread considerably in humans is the SIVsmm found in the sooty mangabeys of the Tai forest, in western Ivory Coast.

The mechanism of HIV-2 is not clearly defined, nor the difference from HIV-1, however the transmission rate is much lower in HIV-2 than HIV-1.

Disease monitoring in patients with HIV-2 includes clinical evaluation and CD4 cell counts, while treatment includes anti-retroviral therapy, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors with the addition of CCR5 co-receptor antagonists and fusion inhibitors.

HIV-2 seems to have lower mortality rates, less severe symptoms and slower progression to AIDS than HIV-1 alone or the co-infection.