MONITORING BLOOD DONORS FOR HIV‐2 INFECTION BY TESTING ANTI‐HIV‐1 REACTIVE SERA

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Abstract
Anti‐HIV‐1 EIA tests currently used for screening blood donors in the United States are estimated to detect 55 to 91% of HIV‐2 infections; Western blots for HIV‐1 antibodies may be positive, negative or indeterminate with HIV‐2‐positive sera. We reasoned that we could exploit the cross‐reactivity of the anti‐HIV‐1 EIA as a means to monitor the blood supply for the appearance of HIV‐2 infected or co‐infected persons, and thus decide if and when routine HIV‐2 screening should be adopted. We tested 913 anti‐HIV‐1‐reactive donor sera using an anti‐HIV‐2 screening EIA, with confirmation by an anti‐HIV‐2 env‐peptide EIA and an anti‐HIV‐2 Western blot. These 913 sera were derived from anti‐HIV‐1 screening of approximately 242,000 donations over a three year period. No HIV‐2 infections were identified. This approach may warrant adoption in blood centers serving populations with persons from countries where HIV‐2 is prevalent.