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Abstract
Background: Better understanding of HIV-2 infection is likely to affect the patient care in areas where HIV-2 is prevalent. In this study, we aimed to characterize the clinical presentations among HIV-1, HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 dual seropositive patients.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, newly diagnosed HIV patients attending the HIV outpatient clinic at Hospital Nacional Simão Mendes in Guinea-Bissau were enrolled. Demographical and clinical data were collected and compared between HIV-1, HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 dual seropositive patients.
Results: A total of 169 patients (76% HIV-1, 17% HIV-2 and 6% HIV 1/2) were included in the study between 21 March 2012 and 14 December 2012. HIV-1 seropositive patients were younger than HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 seropositive patients, but no difference in sex was observed. Patients with HIV-1 and HIV-1/2 had a lower baseline CD4 cell count than HIV-2 seropositive patients (median CD4 cell count 185, 198 and 404 cells/μl, respectively (p value 0.001 and 0.05). HIV-1 seropositive patients had a lower BMI and a higher prevalence of weight loss, skin rash and productive cough than HIV-2 seropositive patients (p value 0.03, 0.002, 0.03 and 0.04). Only four cases (2%) of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) were diagnosed. One patient (1/96, 1%) was tested positive for cryptococcal antigen.
Conclusion: HIV-1 and HIV-1/2 seropositive patients have lower CD4 cell counts than HIV-2 seropositive patients when diagnosed with HIV with only minor clinical and demographic differences among groups. Few patients were diagnosed with TB and cryptococcal disease was not found to be a major opportunistic infection among newly diagnosed HIV patients.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the health care personal at the HIV clinic at HNSM for providing medical care and data acquisition of the HIV infected patients in this study.
The Bissau HIV cohort study group comprises: Amabelia Rodrigues, David da Silva, Zacarias da Silva, Candida Medina, Ines Oliviera-Souto, Lars Østergaard, Alex Laursen, Morten Sodemann, Peter Aaby, Anders Fomsgaard, Christian Erikstrup, Jesper Eugen-Olsen and Christian Wejse (chair).
We acknowledge The National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), as part of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) under Award Number U01AI069919.
Disclosure statement
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.
Funding information
Financial support from the Lundbeck foundation and Abbott is gratefully acknowledged. The HIV clinic is financially supported by its collaboration with International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) and the West African Platform for HIV Intervention Research (WAPHIR).