Silent infections with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 are highly
unlikely in multitransfused seronegative hemophiliacs [see comments]
J Gibbons, JM Cory, IK Hewlett, JS Epstein and ME Eyster
Department of Medicine, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine,
Hershey.
We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine the frequency of
silent human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections in
seronegative high-risk individuals with hemophilia who had been exposed to
contaminated blood products more than 3 years previously. In a cross-
sectional study of a cohort of 57 prospectively followed seronegative
hemophiliacs who received multiple transfusions before 1986, HIV-1 proviral
DNA was found transiently in only one patient. These data suggest that the
rate of HIV infection among high-risk antibody negative individuals with
hemophilia is very low to absent, in the range of 0% to 2%. These findings
should provide considerable reassurance to seronegative persons with
hemophilia and their sexual partners.
Volume 76,
Issue 10,
pp. 1924-1926,
11/15/1990
Copyright © 1990 by The American Society of Hematology