부산대학교 도서관

Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are lacking in the ability to fight off infection and thus at risk of developing an opportunistic infection. HIV impairs both cellular (cell) and humoral (antibody) immunity. Also, HIV infection impairs the ability of the immune system to respond to vaccines. Studies have shown that the immune response to hepatitis B virus vaccine and pneumococcal polysaccharides is impaired in patients with HIV. In 1988 there was an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Israel. This resulted in the development of a program to immunize the entire population, including patients with HIV. The HIV patients were given an enhanced inactivated polio vaccine (eIPV) to protect against poliovirus (PV). In order to determine the effect of vaccination in HIV patients, the level of immunity to PV was determined in HIV patients before and after vaccination. Twenty homosexual men from the Tel Aviv Medical Center participated in the study. Seventeen were positive for HIV. Blood samples were taken before and four weeks after vaccination and tested for PV antibodies. HIV patients were divided into separate groups based on the number of T cells (cells that stimulate antibody production) present in their blood. The patients with the lowest levels of T cells did not produce antibody to PV following the vaccine. Seventy-one percent of the HIV patients had high enough circulating levels of T cells in their blood to produce and antibody response to the PV vaccine. It is concluded that, if possible, vaccination in HIV patients should be performed at an early stage during HIV infection while the T cell count is high enough to allow an antibody response to the vaccine. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)