Human T-lymphotropic Virus HTLV III (HIV)

In 1984, before introduction of blood borne virus screening in deceased organ donation, four patients received cadaveric kidney grafts from donors with history of intravenous drug use. Sera of all four patients before and up to 40 days post transplantation were anti-HTLV-III negative by the assays available at the time. Eight months after transplantation all four patients had HTLV-III-specific antibodies. Patients had received blood transfusions post transplantation but the estimated prevalence of anti HTLV-III positivity among Berlin blood donors at the time was less than 0.001%. Since all four infected recipients had received kidneys from donors at high risk for blood borne viruses, the authors conclude that the kidney grafts were the source of all four HTLV-III infections.