Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in the United States: An Analysis of Cases Outside High-Incidence Groups

Abstract

From 1 June 1981 through 31 January 1984, 201 cases of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome were reported involving persons who could not be classified into a group identified to be at increased risk for this syndrome. Thirty-five had received transfusions of single-donor blood components in the 5 years preceding diagnosis of the syndrome and 30 were sexual partners of persons belonging to a high-risk group. Information was incomplete for most remaining patients, but because many of these patients were demographically similar to populations recognized to be at increased risk for the syndrome, previously identified risk factors may have been present but not reported for some of them. Additionally, a few persons who met the case definition for the syndrome probably had other reasons for their opportunistic disease and did not have the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The slow emergence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in new populations is consistent with transmission mediated through sexual contact or parenteral exposure to blood.

Monitoring HIV-1 infection prevalence among intravenous drug users in Vienna 1986–1990

“…In Europe, there is a noticeable north to south division in the rates of seropositivity, with higher rates occurring in the south (Ancelle-Park et al, 1987;Robertson et al, 1986;France et al, 1988). In reviewing the relative risks of transmission, there is some evidence that the sharing of unsterile injecting equipment is of greater significance than sexual transmission (Des Jarlais et al, 1987), but outside high risk groups cases are well documented (Chamberland et al, 1984) occurring at a slower rate in Europe (Ancelle-Park et al, 1987) than in SubSaharan Africa (Airhihenbuwa, 1989).…”

Trends in the First Ten Years of AIDS in New York City

“…The overall epidemic of AIDS can best be understood as a number of concurrent but overlapping epidemics delineated by type of risk. Originally recognized in 1981 in men who reported having sex with men, by the end of 1982 AIDS had been diagnosed in injection drug users, the female sex partners of male injection drug users, children born to parents at risk, blood transfusion recipients, and persons with hemophilia (1,(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10). The disease was also found to be prevalent in heterosexual men and women from certain Caribbean and African countries who reported neither injection drug use nor homosexual sex (11,12).…”

Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type III Associated Disorders

“…13 Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III has been incriminated in the development of both AIDS and PGL. It has recently been isolated from the peripheral blood, lymph nodes, semen, and saliva from affected homosexual patients and some asymptomatic individuals at risk for AIDS.8·14"17 Similarly, the presence of antibodies to HTLV-III has been reported in the majority of these persons, as well as in asymptomatic, clinically well homosexual men, IV drug abusers, and female sexual partners of hemophiliacs.9,18 '19 The 11 cases reported herein represent a spectrum of clinical illness related to exposure to HTLV-III in hetero¬ sexual individuals who have no history of exposure to the classic risk factors of homosexuality, IV drug abuse, or transfusion of blood or blood products.…”