Prevalence of antibodies to human immunodeficiency virus and to human T cell leukemia virus type I in transfused sickle cell disease patients.
The prevalence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody and the human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) antibody was examined in 116 adults with sickle cell disease. Eighty-eight of them had received a mean of 18.6 transfusions of red blood cells between 1978 and 1985, and none was positive for the HIV antibody. Of 116 patients, 9 (7.8%) tested positive for HTLV-I antibodies. HTLV-I-positive patients were similar to those without HTLV-I antibody with respect to age, number of transfusions, and proportion of patients with greater than 40 transfusions. However, 3 of the 9 HTLV-I-positive patients came from West Africa or from the Caribbean, whereas this proportion was much lower (7/107) in the HTLV-I-negative group (x2, 7.564; P less than .01). Our analysis suggests that the risk of HIV infection in transfused sickle cell disease patients is low. Although HTLV-I antibodies in these patients may not be related to blood transfusions, it seems prudent to screen blood donors for HTLV-I infection.
Castro
O
O
Department of Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059.
Saxinger
C
C
Barnes
S
S
Alexander
S
S
Flagg
R
R
Frederick
W
W
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000755:Anemia, Sickle Cell / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D004912:Erythrocytes; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies