Newsday - April 10, 1992
Laurie Garrett
Medical procedures done in the home can pose a risk of transmitting the AIDS virus, federal officials warned yesterday, citing the case of a 3-year-old boy who apparently got the virus from a needle used to treat his older brother.
The brothers, who were not identified, both have hemophilia. The older boy, now 8, had been infected before 1985, from receiving contaminated Factor VIII blood products. Such blood products, which some hemophiliacs need to survive, have been sterilized only since 1987.
The younger boy, now 4, was infected in 1990 or 1991 - the first hemophiliac infected, federal authorities said, since sterilization of blood products began. The brothers were found to have a genetically identical strain of the AIDS virus, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control reported.
Investigators from the CDC say it's most likely the younger boy got the virus from needles used to inject blood clotting factors into the older boy.
"Both children were receiving intravenous therapy, at home," Dr. Ruth Berkelman of the CDC said in an interview. "And we do believe the younger child became infefcted as a result of exposure to contaminated needles."
As late as August, 1990, the younger boy tested negative for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. But in December, 1991, he tested positive for infection. Between those dates, when the boy was 3, there were 15 occasions on which the boys' mother needed to inject both of them with blood clotting factors.
She was careful always to use different disposable syringes on the boys, but would sometimes place a needle just used on the HIV-positive boy in a paper bag for a moment while she prepared to inject the younger child.
"We're talking about a 3-year-old," Berkelman said, "who may have reached out to that bag and stuck himself."
Though no such incident was witnessed - and other sources of infection such as bites or shared toothbrushes are theoretically possible - "the signs clearly point towards exposure by needle contamination," Berkelman said.
In order to cut medical costs for a variety of chronic illnesses - from diabetes and cancer to AIDS - more Americans are being treated at home, rather than in hospitals, Berkelman said. "There's a lot more intravenous infusion therapy going on at home today," she said. "These people need to know about universal precautions, and be careful."
The New York-based National Hemophilia Foundation will soon issue posters to the nation's hemophiliacs that remind them to properly dispose of injection equipment, wear latex gloves, and observe caution to protect family members, executive director Alan Brownstein said in an interview.
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