HIV-2 infection in a migrant from Gambia: the history of the disease combined with phylogenetic analysis revealed the real source of infection

Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) infection prevalence is increasing in some European countries. The increasing migratory flow from countries where HIV-2 is endemic has facilitated the spread of the virus into Europe and other regions. We describe a case of HIV-2 infection in a migrant individual in the Asylum Seeker Centre (ASC) in Italy. The patient's virus was sequenced, and found to be a typical HIV-2 genotype A virus. Bayesian evolutionary analysis revealed that the HIV-2 sequence from migrant dated back to 1986 in a subcluster including sequences from Guinea Bissau. This was coherent with the migrant history who lived in Guinea Bissau from his birth until 1998 when he was 13 years old. Monitoring for HIV-2 infection in migrants from western Africa is necessary using adequate molecular tools to improve the diagnosis and understand the real origin of infection.