HIV seroprevalence in hematologic patients other than hemophiliacs at Ramathibodi Hospital.

Recently there have been increasing reports of HIV infection acquired through transfusion of HIV seronegative blood in Thailand due to high incidence of HIV new infection in blood donors. Blood or blood components (BC) prepared from HIV seronegative blood donation pose significant hazards to recipients because of the risk of viremia during the "window period" of HIV infection. This paper presents the HIV seroprevalence in hematologic patients other than hemophiliacs who received multiple blood transfusion at Ramathibodi Hospital. The retrospective analysis was done on 167 patients: 132 thalassemia, 19 leukemia, 5 aplastic anemia, 5 ITP, 2 pure red cell aplasia, 2 congenital non spherocytic hemolytic anemia, 1 hereditary spherocytosis and 1 autoimmune hemolytic anemia patients, who received blood transfusion during January 1, 1987 till February 29, 1992 at the Department of Pediatrics, Ramathibodi Hospital. The number of blood or BC transfused in each patient was 1-154 units with the average of 23 units per patient per 5 years with a total 4,000 units. All were HIV sero-negative. Anti-HIV screening was performed periodically in these patients about 1-2 times per year or as necessary. The results were HIV seronegative in all cases. The reason for negative results cannot be explained clearly. It should be noted that our thalassemic patients receive leukocyte poor blood and avoid a hypertransfusion program. Patients with other blood diseases received both whole blood and BC. The HIV contaminated blood in the window period was estimated to be 1:10,000 in Thailand which showed HIV antigen positive but antibody negative. These patients may be fortunately received HIV non contaminated blood.