Monitoring for HIV-1, HIV-2, HTLV-I sero-progression and sero-conversion in a population at risk in east Africa.

Thirty-three individuals from East Africa, at risk for acquiring sexually transmitted infections, were selected to be monitored over a five month period for evidence of sero-progression and/or sero-conversion for human immunodeficiency virus type-1 and type-2 (HIV-1, HIV-2), and human T cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-I). Initially, all sera were reactive by at least one retroviral screening assay, but most produced negative or indeterminate results by western blot assays. Five months after the initial screening, western blot assays indicated that one individual exhibited full sero-conversion for HIV-1; one HIV-1 positive individual also became positive for HIV-2; and two subjects showed sero-progression to become HTLV-I confirmed positive. Sera from fourteen individuals produced indeterminate results by western blot for HIV-1, ten of which were previously negative; the remaining four sera exhibited reactivity to at least one additional viral specific antigen after the five months. Circulating HIV-1 antigen was not demonstrated in any of the sera but DNA isolated from one of the individuals with indeterminate results produced a positive reaction for HIV-1 by the polymerase chain reaction.