Variant of AIDS Virus May Be Spreading in Brazil

HIV-2, a variant AIDS virus that is common in West Africa, may be spreading in Brazil, according to a report in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The study by researchers from Brazil and the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles found that one of 70 homosexual men and four of 133 men with AIDS have been infected with HIV-2. By comparison, 16 of the homosexual men were infected with the HIV-1, which is generally known as the AIDS virus.

The researchers speculated that the virus may have been introduced into Brazil by workers returning from African countries, including Angola, where HIV-2 has been found. “More studies are needed to determine the extent of HIV-2 in Brazil,” the report said.

Dr. David D. Ho of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Dr. Roger Detels of the UCLA School of Public Health were among the authors of the study, which was directed by Dr. Eduardo Cortes of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

An editorial in the New England Journal cautioned that the positive HIV-2 results may represent false laboratory readings. This is because all of the presumably HIV-2 infected individuals also had evidence of HIV-1 infections and the HIV-2 virus itself was not actually isolated from any of the individuals.

The editorial, by Dr. Thomas C. Quinn of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and two doctors from the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, estimated that “2.5 million people in the Americas have been infected with HIV-1 to date and that 500,000 persons will have a confirmed diagnosis of AIDS by 1992.”

The editorial said that increasing numbers of women are being infected with HIV-1 by heterosexual transmission, primarily in Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.