Antiretroviral Therapy in Patients with Dual Infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Types 1 and 2

Abstract

The number of patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) infection in western Europe is increasing; at our hospital we currently follow 630 patients seropositive for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), 14 seropositive for HIV-2, and 6 with seropositivity for both HIV-1 and HIV-2. All the HIV-2–seropositive patients belong to or have direct links with a group of West African immigrants residing in the Rotterdam area. Six previously untreated HIV-2–seropositive patients who were given 300 mg of zidovudine twice daily, 150 mg of lamivudine twice daily, and 800 mg of indinavir three times daily have improved clinically, with a decrease in plasma HIV-2 RNA levels to less than 500 copies per milliliter (data not shown). Here we describe the failure of antiretroviral therapy in two previously untreated patients with both HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection.