Persistence of HIV‐1 silent infection in seronegative subjects at high risk

Abstract
Twenty regular sexual partners of HIV‐1 infected subjects, without detectable human irnmunodeficiency virus (HIV‐1) antibody and positive for HIV‐1 genome by in situ hybridization (ISH), were selected and studied longitudinally for 6–36 months to estimate the duration of silent infection. During the follow‐up period, 10 showed atypical Western Blot (WB) patterns. Two seronegative partners seroconverted. Rapid progress t o AIDS was observed in 7 seropositive subjects.