A call for randomized controlled trials of antiretroviral therapy for HIV-2 infection in West Africa

MK-8591 (4′-Ethynyl-2-Fluoro-2′-Deoxyadenosine) Exhibits Potent Activity against HIV-2 Isolates and Drug-Resistant HIV-2 Mutants in Culture

“…A ntiretroviral therapy (ART) can prolong the life spans of individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) by years or even decades, but these benefits have yet to be formally demonstrated in clinical trials involving human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) and HIV-1/2 dually infected patients (1)(2)(3). HIV-2 is endemic in West Africa and is also prevalent in other areas with socioeconomic ties to the region (4,5).…”

Emergence of HIV Types and Risk Factors in Pregnant Women in Burkina Faso from 2006 to 2014

“…Burkina Faso is one of the countries of West Africa, the part of the continent where HIV-2 is endemic and HIV-1 having been introduced first, which would have resulted in the presence of a double HIV-D infection in addition to infection with one of two types [30][31][32][33][34]. Thus, this study focused on determining the rates of infection with HIV-1, HIV-2 and HIV-D by analyzing data from 66,597 pregnant women serosurveillances of HIV sentinel sites in Burkina Faso between 2006 and 2014.…”

Zidovudine and Lamivudine for HIV Infection

“…Both 3TC and ZDV have activity against different subtypes of wild-type HIV-1 and both are also active against HIV-2, although the effectiveness in HIV-2 infected patients is not fully established. [13][14][15] The in vitro 50% effective concentration (EC 50 ) against HIV-1 is approximately 1 μM (230 ng/mL) for 3TC and 0.01 μM (2.7 ng/mL) for ZDV, but several factors influence this value such as the cell-type used for the assay and the subtype of HIV-1 or HIV-2 studied. 8 As one measure of potency in vivo, ZDV monotherapy reduces HIV-RNA in plasma of antiretroviral naïve individuals by about 0.85 log 10 copies/mL whereas 3TC monotherapy reduces plasma HIV-RNA by about 1.5 log 10 copies/mL.…”