Precautions in Care of Patients with the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Excerpt

To the editor: The policy of Franson and colleagues (1) for blood handling precautions for patients suspected to harbor one of the human T-cell lymphotrophic viruses (HTLV) deserves clarification. Reinterpretation of clinical and epidemiologic studies in light of new laboratory information (including recognition of at least three distinct members of this retrovirus family) is in order.

The prototype human retrovirus, HTLV-I, is associated with the syndrome of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) as previously described (2). The two patients mentioned by Franson and colleagues (1) (with T-cell lymphoma and with mycosis fungoides complicated by T-cell immunoblastic sarcoma) most likely fit into