Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - February 6, 1986
"This is a very extreme example," said Dr. Harold Jaffe, a top AIDS researcher at the Federal Centers for Disease Control here.
The child, now 2 years old, was born with a severe intestinal abnormality that required numerous operations, bags to collect his excretions and blood transfusions from at least 26 donors. Dr. Jaffe said that in one transfusion, most likely in May 1984, the boy picked up the virus that causes AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, from an infected blood donor.
The boy's mother, in a hospital and at home, frequently handled his blood, his waste and tubes used to feed him. She did not wear gloves and "often did not wash her hands immediately after blood or secretion contact," the Federal agency said in its weekly report. A test of her blood last October showed evidence of the virus. But the woman, who is 32, has not developed symptoms of AIDS, the disease that destroys the immune system and from which no one is known to have recovered.
The centers has issued guidelines for people handling the blood or bodily fluids of medical patients, recommending gloves and other safeguards to prevent transmission of AIDS or other viruses.
The centers' report said the case may be similar to that of an Englishwoman who, though not a health professional, was caring for a Ghanaian man who was diagnosed posthumously as having had AIDS. She caught the disease but she denied that she and the man had had sexual contact, the chief means of transmission for AIDS. </txt> <banner> Correction Appended </banner> <cdate> February 8, 1986, Saturday, Late City Final Edition </cdate> <ctext> <b>Correction:</b> February 8, 1986, Saturday, Late City Final Edition
The headline on an Atlanta dispatch in some editions yesterday, about a mother who contracted the AIDS virus from her child, misstated her condition. As the article said, she was infected with the virus but has not developed symptoms of the disease. </ctext> <sub> ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS); BLOOD </sub> <org> CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL </org> <nexsqn> 093637860207 </nexsqn> <edt> Late City Final Edition </edt> <sec> D </sec> <pg> 16 </pg> <sortpg> 0016 </sortpg> <cl> 1 </cl> <dsk> National Desk </dsk> <nexpd> 19860207080000 </nexpd> <pdate> 19860207 </pdate> <day> Friday </day> <pdm> 2 </pdm> <pdd> 7 </pdd> <pdy> 1986 </pdy> <sqn> 363786 </sqn>
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