Risk of health care professionals acquiring HIV infection in Latin America.

This study describes the professional risk of acquiring HIV infection while caring for AIDS patients at a teaching hospital in Brazil. Since 1985 we have tested health care professionals (HCP) for HIV-1 antibody after accidents with blood and body fluids from AIDS patients. The blood samples were tested twice using an ELISA FDA approved test and, if positive, we performed Western blot. Two hundred and forty seven health care professionals reported 338 accidents (50% were percutaneous and 22% were mucous membrane exposures to blood). A further 404 HCPs reported no occupational exposure but wanted to be tested. From 247 HCPs with at least one accident, we analyzed 115 with more than 6 months of follow up. None were HIV antibody positive. Nobody received zidovudine as a prophylaxis. Of the 404 HCPs with no accident, 6 (1.5%) were positive and had confirmed risk factors for HIV. Our results support other studies that report a low occupational risk (about 0.4%) of acquiring HIV infection.

Monocyte and lymphocyte interaction in patients with advanced cancer. Evidence for deficient IL-1 production.

Patients with advanced neoplasms have a variety of immunologic abnormalities, including the impaired responsiveness of peripheral blood lymphocytes to mitogen and alloantigen. In the current study it was observed that cancer patients have increased monocyte suppressor cell activity that is mediated by prostaglandins and contributes to the depressed proliferative response of the patients' T-cells. This monocyte suppression, however, is not the major cause of the depressed proliferative response. The study also demonstrated that levels of interleukin 1 (IL-1) produced by lypopolysacharide-activated monocytes from cancer patients are significantly lower than they are in normal subjects.