Seroepidemiological Studies of HTLV-III Antibody Prevalence Among Selected Groups of Heterosexual Africans
- Nathan Clumeck, MD;
- Marjorie Robert-Guroff, PhD;
- Philippe Van De Perre, MD;
- Andrea Jennings, PhD;
- Jean Sibomana, MD;
- Patrick Demol, MD;
- Sophie Cran, MD;
- Robert C. Gallo, MD
- From the Division of Infectious Diseases and Laboratory of Microbiology, Saint-Pierre Hospital, Brussels (Drs Clumeck, Van De Perre, Demol, and Cran); the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md (Drs Robert-Guroff, Jennings, and Gallo); and the Blood Transfusion Project, Kigali, Rwanda (Dr Sibomana).
Abstract
T-lymphocyte subsets and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III antibody prevalence were studied in African patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or AIDS-related complex (ARC), and in female prostitutes. African blood donors and healthy Zairian and Rwandese persons matched for age, sex, and annual income served as controls. Seropositivity was noted in 46 (87%) of 53 patients with AIDS, 29 (88%) of 33 patients with ARC, 67 (80%) of 84 prostitutes, and five (12.5%) of 40 and eight (15.5%) of 51 healthy controls and blood donors,respectively. Patients with AIDS and ARC had a significantly lower OKT4/OKT8 ratio than healthy African controls. These studies suggest that human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III infection has already spread extensively into the general African population and that female prostitutes could be an important human reservoir of AIDS virus in the heterosexual population.
(JAMA 1985;254:2599-2602)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Division of Infectious Diseases, Saint-Pierre Hospital, Rue Haute, 322-B-1000 Brussels, Belgium (Dr Clumeck).
