ABSTRACT
There has been a concern that the number of persons engaging in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training could decline because of questions about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) transmission. We investigated the theoretical possibility that a CPR manikin might serve as a fomite for HIV-1 transmission. Decontamination protocols were tested by using elevated levels of virus and decreasing decontamination times. Even under these compromising conditions, however, decontamination was effective.
Subject(s)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation , Disinfection , HIV Infections/transmission , HIV-1 , Manikins , 1-Propanol , Disinfection/methods , HumansABSTRACT
Three enzyme immunoassay (EIA) methods for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) were evaluated. Serum or plasma samples from 22 individuals seropositive for HIV-1 antibodies were tested with the Abbott, Coulter, and DuPont kits for presence of HIV-1 p24 antigen. Another 12 samples were tested with two kits only. Discordant results were obtained with 9 of 34 (26%) HIV-1-antibody-positive patient samples tested. Most of these discrepancies were found in samples containing less than 30 pg/ml of HIV-1 p24 core antigen. A sampling of sera from normal blood donors and patients with infectious or autoimmune diseases revealed a low level of false positive reactions, especially with sera containing antinuclear antibodies or rheumatoid factor. Noteworthy is the frequency of false positive reactions seen with the DuPont EIA for HIV-1 p24 antigen. 18/111 sera (16.2%) containing auto-antibodies tested positively with the DuPont HIV-1 p24 antigen EIA. The nonspecific nature of the test reactivity for 9/10 of these samples was confirmed using an HIV-1 p24 antigen inhibition assay. These findings are discussed in light of the need for HIV-1 antigen detection in the clinical laboratory and of other methods for HIV-1 detection: the polymerase chain reaction and measurements of reverse transcriptase activity.
