Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press; Thursday January 28, 1988
Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey said it is the first time the virus has been seen in the Western Hemisphere. They said the patient was exposed to the virus in Africa.
The virus is called HIV-2, for human immunodeficiency virus, type 2. That distinguishes it from the original AIDS virus, which is designated HIV-1.
Officials at the New Jersey hospital said the patient in whom HIV-2 was found has developed AIDS as a result of the infection.
The officials would not release the identity or location of the patient and would not say when or how the diagnosis was made.
The finding "represents a complication only for laboratories that test human blood for HIV-1, because HIV-2 is sufficiently different in its genetic makeup so as not to be detectable in the same blood test," said Dr. Mathilde Krim, chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, based in New York.
But Dr. Myron Essex, a Harvard University researcher, said HIV-1 tests are at least 50 percent effective in detecting HIV-2, depending on the test manufacturer.
"The best ones are 90 to 95 percent effective in picking up infections of HIV-2 even though they're made for HIV-1," he said.
Essex said there is no cause for alarm that HIV-2 may have infected the nation's blood supply, because the incidence of HIV-2 infection in the U.S. is "so astronomically low."
A screening test for HIV-2 has been developed and is awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. James Curran, head of the AIDS program at the government's Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Krim said all precautions against the more common AIDS strain also protect against HIV-2.
Gayle Lloyd of the Atlanta centers confirmed that the case is the first diagnosis of HIV-2 infection in the Western Hemisphere. The university said that investigations have revealed no evidence that the patient with HIV-2 has spread the virus to anybody else in the country.
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