Prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody in commercial intravenous immunoglobulin preparations

Nine commercially available intravenous immunoglobulin preparations (IVIG) produced by different manufacturers, such as alkylated, sulphonated, pepsin-, plasmin-, polyethyleneglycol- and pH 4 treated ones in 42 different lots were examined their human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody, employing three ELISA test kits (Abbott, Wellcome, Du Pont), an immunofluorescence test procedure and a Western blot technique.Eight preparations out of nine were revealed to be antibody positive, and they were tested first by ELISA for screening and then confirmed their results by immunofluorescence and Western blot tests. Although HIV antibody positive results do not necessarily mean that. HIV is present in the products, our finding suggests that there might be potential infectivity for HIV by IVIG, and so careful donor selection and devised preparative processing of IVIG for inactivation of HIV are needed. Furthermore screening fo HIV itself in the products would become indispensable in the near future.