Prevalence of HIV and Treponema pallidum infections in pregnant women in Campinas and their association with socio-demographic factors

The anonymous seroprevalence of HIV and syphilis was studied by collecting umbilical cord blood samples from 5,815 women who gave birth in Campinas'hospitals throughout a six-month period. ELISA and Western blot were used for HIV, and VDRL and TPHA for Treponema pallidum screening. While maintaining the anonymity of the women, information was recorded on the hospital of origin, divided into university (public) and private hospitals, as well as on the form of payment (social security, private insurance or direct payment), age, marital status, education, employment and place of residence. Seroprevalence was 0.42 percent for HIV and 1.16 percent for syphilis. There was a significant correlation between a positive reaction to the two infections (p=0.02). After univariate and logistic regression analysis, only university hospitals were shown to be associated with seropositivity for HIV, whereas the same variable and an older age were associated with syphilis. All positive reactions were found either in public hospitals or among social security patients treated at private institutions. The conclusion was that HIV infection is becoming almost as prevalent as syphilis among this population, and affects primarily the lower socio-economic strata. This suggests that routine, voluntary HIV serology should be considered and discussed with patients during prenatal or delivery care whenever a population shows a seroprevalence close to or greater than 1 percent.

Detecçäo de anticorpos anti-HLA por reaçäo de microlinfocitotoxicidade potencializada pela adiçäo de anti-gama globulina humana / Detection of anti-HLA antibodies by reaction of the microlymphocytotoxicity potencialized by adiction of human anti-gamma globulin

No presente trabalho realizamos inicialmente a padronizaçäo da reaçäo de microlinfocitotoxicidade potencializada pela adiçäo de anti-gama globulina humana. Padronizada a técnica, estudamos comparativamente os resultados obtidos em 1248 "cross-matches" realizados pelo método clássico e pelo método da anti-gama globulina. A seguir, realizamos a pesquisa de anticorpos anti-HLA em amostras seriadas de 27 pacientes com insuficiência renal crônica, sem transplante prévio, candidatos a transplante de rim de doador cadáver. Os resultados obtidos nos levaram a concluir que o método da anti-gama globulina humana por nós padronizado mostrou-se ser mais sensível que o método clássico para se detectar sensibilizaçäo aos antígenos do sistema HLA. Além disso, o estudo das amostras colhidas seriadamente de pacientes com insuficiência renal crônica, candidatos a transplante de rim de doador cadáver, sugeree que este método pode ser de grande valia no acompanhamento destes pacientes, podendo influenciar favoravelmente a escolha do doador mais compatível, diminuindo o risco de rejeiçäo por mecanismo humoral