title: Five-year experience of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 national screening program implemented at Veterans General Hospital-Taipei.
abstract: From July 1986 through June 1990, 33,199 sera from various risk groups were collected in Veterans General Hospital-Taipei for detection of antibody against human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1). Sixty-five samples were proved positive by Western blot analysis. Among individual high risk groups, hemophiliacs had the highest positive rate of 20/60 (29.41%), followed by homosexual/bisexual males (41/1,264, 3.24%). The overall positive rate was 65/33,199 (0.19%). Ten cases were recognized as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 1 case had AIDS-related complex (ARC) and 4 case had other apparently symptomatic infections. Among these 15 cases, 7 expired, 1 lost of follow-up and 7 surviving cases are being treated with zidovudine (AZT). Most of symptomatic HIV-1 antibody positive cases had abnormal T4/T8 ratio of 0.39 +/- 0.54 as compared with the asymptomatic HIV-1 carriers at a ratio of 0.81 +/- 0.69. The opportunistic infections included Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in 6 case, disseminated cytomegalovirus infection in 6 cases, herpes zoster virus infection in 3 case, candidiasis in 4 cases, syphilis in 3 cases, pulmonary tuberculosis in 2 cases, and others with cryptococcosis, salmonellosis, Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare infection, gonorrhea, Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis and bacterial sepsis, etc. The natural history of HIV-1 infection to AIDS involved acute and persistent multiple infections. Although prevalence of HIV-1 infection was low in Taiwan, nationwide surveillance of HIV-1 infection in various risk groups is still needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Veterans General Hospital-Kaohsiung & Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: W T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Yen
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: W W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors