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Le virus de l‘immunodéficience humaine de type 2 Volume 7, issue 5, septembre-octobre 2003

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Authors
Laboratoire de virologie, Hôpital Bichat Claude‐Bernard, 46 rue Henri‐Huchard, 75018 Paris. E‐mail : florence.damondbch.ap‐hop‐paris.fr Institut Pasteur, Dakar, Sénégal

Human Immunodeficency virus type 2 (HIV‐2) was isolated for the first time in 1985 from patient originating from West Africa. HIV‐2 infection is mainly restricted to West Africa. Its natural history show that this virus is less pathogenic than HIV‐1. Sexual and mother to child transmission were significatively lower than HIV‐1. AIDS disease progression is also lower. It has been shown that HIV‐2 viral load is lower than HIV‐1 when matching patients with identical CD4 cells count. Virological determination and mechanisms for these apparent biologic differences are still unknown. One hypothesis might be that there is a different expression of viral regulation leading to prolonged efficacy of immune cellular response. Identifying the virus and host factors that account for this are likely to clarify the mechanisms that account for the pathogenic nature of HIV‐1 and may help to identify immune factors responsible for the control of HIV‐2 infection.