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Infection by HIV1 is rising in West African towns, in core groups (prostitutes and their partners) and in the general female population. The spread of the virus shows discontinuities in time and space. Diverse forms of mobility of people are involved and conditioned throughout the social itinerary of the virus, at staged territorials levels. Their effectiveness varies, depending on the intensity of relations between places and between groups, on the activity of prostitution, and on the integration of migrants into the host community or the return of migrants to their home communities. The role of the migration factor appears particularly important outside the core groups, since the socio-cultural features of West Africa’s populations seem relatively unconducive to viral circulation.