[Prevalence of anti-HIV antibodies in immunoglobulins recipients]

Abstract

Seven hundred and forty subjects who, between 1980 and 1985, had received intravenous or intramuscular injections of immunoglobulins (Ig) prepared by Cohn fractionation of plasma pools from more than 2000 donors were investigated for anti-HIV antibodies. Anti-HIV antibodies were detected in only one subject, a female drug addict and therefore belonging to a group at high risk of AIDS. In contrast with the huge amounts of Ig received by the remaining 739 subjects (976 litres intravenously, 128 litres intramuscularly), this young woman had only received 10 ml of anti-HBs Ig intramuscularly. The wide scattering in both space and time of these recipients of Ig and the prevalence of anti-HIV antibodies among blood donors in France (0.7 per 1000 in 1985) suggest that all the batches studied (over 100) were contaminated by HIV. The absence in these subjects of seropositive reaction ascribable to the injections of Ig confirms that Cohn fractionation inactivates the virus, as demonstrated in vitro. It is concluded that recipients of Ig prepared from plasma pools not tested for the absence of anti-HIV antibodies should not be regarded as a group at risk of AIDS.