Quality control assessment of HIV-2 viral load quantification assays. Results from an international collaboration on HIV-2 infection, 2006

APHP, Hôpital Bichat – Claude Bernard, Laboratoire de Virologie, Paris, 75018 France; INSERM, U897.ISPED, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, F-33076 France; AIDS Reference Laboratory, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; Medical Research Council Laboratories, Banjul, Gambia; Institute of Virology, Bonn, Germany; Laboratório de Biologia Molecular. CHLO - Hospital Egas Moniz, Lisboa, Portugal; Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; Dept of Virology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna and Dept of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Swiss HIV Cohort Study, Switzerland; Centre for Virology, Royal Free & University College London Medical School, London, UK; APHP, Hôpital Bichat – Claude Bernard, Service de Maladies infectieuses et Tropicales, Paris, France

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: florence.damond{at}bch.aphp.fr.

	Abstract

To evaluate HIV-2 RNA quantification assays used in nine laboratories of the ACHI_EV_2E group. In a blinded experimental design, laboratories quantified three series of aliquots of HIV-2 subtype A strain, each at a different theoretical viral load. Quantification varied between laboratories and international standardization of quantification assays is strongly needed.