ABSTRACT
The emergence of variant strains of HIV has triggered the need for active local, national, and global surveillance. Some new strains identified in the US cannot be detected reliably with current test kits--a problem with important implications for blood safety and for diagnosis and prevention of AIDS.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/epidemiology , Disease Outbreaks , Genetic Variation , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/genetics , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/virology , Blood Banks/standards , Blood Donors , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. , Female , Global Health , HIV-1/genetics , HIV-2/genetics , Humans , Male , Population Surveillance , Sentinel Surveillance , United States/epidemiologySubject(s)
Communicable Disease Control , Virus Diseases , Africa/epidemiology , Animals , Dengue/diagnosis , Dengue/prevention & control , Dengue/transmission , Education, Continuing , Hantavirus Infections/epidemiology , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola/diagnosis , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola/transmission , Humans , Influenza, Human/diagnosis , Influenza, Human/prevention & control , Rabies/diagnosis , Rabies/epidemiology , Rabies/transmission , United States/epidemiology , Virus Diseases/diagnosis , Virus Diseases/epidemiology , Virus Diseases/prevention & control , Virus Diseases/transmissionABSTRACT
To answer questions related to the usefulness of premarital testing for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), two "blinded" or "nonlinked" HIV-1 serosurveys were done in New Jersey, a state with a high incidence of AIDS, on blood specimens submitted for a premarital serologic test for syphilis. The first survey involved premarital blood specimens submitted to the New Jersey Department of Health laboratory for the year starting September 1987. The second survey involved premarital specimens submitted to five private or hospital clinical laboratories in the spring of 1989, of which approximately 1,000 consecutive premarital specimens from each laboratory were sent to the Department of Health laboratory for HIV-1 testing. Of 4,247 specimens tested in the 1987-1988 survey, 21 (0.49%) were positive for antibodies to HIV-1, while among 4,696 specimens in the 1989 survey, 29 (0.62%) were positive. When the survey results were weighted by the number of marriages by geographic regions of the state, the weighted premarital HIV-1 seroprevalence was 0.55% for the 1987-1988 survey and 0.62% for the 1989 survey. The male/female ratio of positive tests was 2.7:1 in 1987-1988 and 1.6:1 in 1989. Of the 8,943 specimens in both surveys, 5 (0.06%) gave an indeterminate immunoblot result, compared with 50 positive results. These percentages of premarital HIV-1 infections are much higher than earlier estimates and reports and are of the same magnitude as recently reported blinded premarital HIV-1 testing elsewhere. Results of this magnitude support a recommendation in New Jersey of voluntary HIV-1 counseling and testing for marriage applicants.
Subject(s)
HIV Antibodies/blood , HIV Infections/epidemiology , HIV Seroprevalence , HIV-1/immunology , Premarital Examinations , Adult , Blotting, Western , Female , HIV Infections/diagnosis , Humans , Immunoenzyme Techniques , Male , Marriage/statistics & numerical data , Middle Aged , New Jersey/epidemiologyABSTRACT
An outbreak of febrile respiratory disease at Fort Dix, New Jersey, beginning in January 1976, yielded five isolates of influenza A/New Jersey/76 virus and 42 isolates of strains resembling influenza A/Victoria/75 virus. Despite extraordinary efforts and the study of 305 verified cases of infection with type A influenza virus throughout the region, no additional instances of infections with influenza A/New Jersey virus were detected in humans.
Subject(s)
Influenza, Human/epidemiology , Military Medicine , Humans , Influenza A virus/immunology , Influenza A virus/isolation & purification , Influenza, Human/etiology , New JerseyABSTRACT
Elimination of commercial blood, mandatory HBs Ag testing by third generation techniques, and detection and interdiction of incriminated blood donors have all contributed to a dramatic 63 per cent reduction in the estimated number of cases of transfusion-associated hepatitis from 424 in 1970 to 158 in 1973 and an even more dramatic drop in fatalities from 55 to 1970 to 10 in 1973.
