The Risk of Developing AIDS in Hemophiliac and Homosexual Men
- James A. Warth, MD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
To the Editor.— The interesting article by Jason et al1 fails to mention what percentage of the hemophiliac population they analyzed was bisexual or homosexual. This may have important ramifications in a small series. If there were a small group, eg, seven individuals (9% of the total), that fit into this category and also had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the total for the first column of Table 1 of their article, omitting those with a dual risk, would be 10/72 = 14%. If none of these individuals had AIDS, then the ratio would be even closer (17/72 = 24%) to that of homosexuals (27%). More importantly, this latter result, ie, a reduced risk in those homosexuals exposed to lyophilized factor VIII, might mean that these individuals had been protected by a putative vaccine (lyophilized plasma containing the AIDS virus).
Patients with hemophilia infected with human immunodeficiency virus appear to develop clinical
