Human Immunodeficiency Virus Antigenemia in Patients with AIDS and AIDS-Related Disorders: A Comparison Between European and Central African Populations

HIV antigens and antibodies against the HIV core protein p24 were assayed in 80 French sera collected from January 1983-January 1987 and 117 sera from Bujumbura Burundi taken from November 1984-April 1986. The French subjects were 21 people with AIDS 23 with ARC and 36 asymptomatic HIV-positive people. The Burundians were 40 with AIDS 40 with ARC and 37 HIV-positive asymptomatic people. All sera were frozen until testing in Tours France at the same time. HIV antibodies were screened with an ELISA kit (Envacore Abbott) which employed the core protein p24 with fragments of p17 and p15. In The European sera AIDS viral antigens rose from 2.8% of asymptomatic HIV-positives to 21.7% of those with ARC to 47.6% of AIDS patients. Antibodies were found in 23.8% of patients with AIDS 78.9% of those with ARC and 86.1% of seropositive persons. Antibodies against gag antigens were associated with lack of HIV antigenemia: 1.9% with antibodies had circulating HIV; 55.6% of those without antibodies had HIV. In sera from Burundi HIV antibodies were detected in 97.3% of seropositives 90.0 of those with ARC and 90.0% with AIDS. Only 1 of 40 (2.5%) of the AIDS patients and none of those in the other groups had circulating HIV. Thus the generalization made in Europeans that antibodies are inversely related to severity of symptoms does not hold in this group of central Africans.