Absence of antibodies to HTLV-III in health workers after hepatitis B vaccination

J. L. Dienstag, B. G. Werner, M. F. McLane, D. R. Snydman, G. F. Grady, D. E. Craven, C. S. Crumpacker, B. F. Polk, R. Platt, J. Allan and al. et

A proportion of the plasma for the triply inactivated, plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine produced in the United States is obtained from homosexual men. Because homosexual men are a high-risk group for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), concern has emerged that the vaccine could harbor the AIDS agent. To evaluate this risk, we tested 15-month postvaccination serum samples for antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III in 100 health care workers who had received inactivated hepatitis B vaccine lots made from plasma collected between 1977 and 1979 and 100 who had received placebo injections. None of the 200 health workers had serological evidence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III infection. These serological findings lend additional support to earlier epidemiologic and immunologic observations suggesting that hepatitis B vaccine does not transmit infection with an AIDS virus.