Passive Transfer of Antibodies to Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type III in Patients Receiving High-Dose Intravenous Immunoglobulin

To the Editor.— Immune serum globulins derived from pooled plasma are being scrutinized as a possible source of viral infection and a cause of seroconversion to the viral antibodies.1,2Recently, there has been evidence that antibody to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (anti-HTLV-III) is present in anti-hepatitis B immunoglobulin and may inducea transient seroconversion.2Fortunately, there is no evidence that hepatitis B vaccines transmit HTLV-III infection or are associated with the development of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.2,3We recently evaluated several immunoglobulin preparations for the presence of anti-HTLV-III and studied whether hypogammaglobulinemic patients who had been receiving high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins developed positive serological test findings for anti-HTLV-III. Four of five immunoglobulin preparations were positive for anti-HTLV-III by enzyme immunoassay; however, only two preparations were positive by Western blot analysis (Table). Eleven patients with common variable hypogammaglobulinemia who had received intravenous immunoglobulin therapy for more than two years were studied. None of these