Frequency of HIV type 2 infections among blood donor population from India: A 10-year experience

Purpose: In India, HIV-2 epidemic is alongside with HIV-1. Blood banks are introducing nucleic acid testing (NAT) for screening. The limitation of NAT systems is the inability to detect HIV-2. Materials and Method: An analysis of HIV screening of a blood bank at a tertiary care center from 1998 to 2007 was carried out. Results: A total of 175026 donors were screened by serological assays and 789 were reactive for HIV antibody. Only 478 (61%) were confirmed positive by Western blot/immunoblot. There were 465 (97.2%) donations positive for HIV-1, 6 (1.3%) for HIV-2 (monotypic infection) and 7 (1.5%) for HIV-1 and HIV-2 (dual infection). Conclusion: We show the presence of HIV-2 infection among the blood donors and the need for incorporating HIV-2 detection also in the NAT systems.