Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Thursday March 5 12:04 AM EST
Heidi Dawley, UPI Science News
The 35-year-old woman became ill three weeks after having the insemination. Three weeks after becoming ill she was diagnosed as having HIV, according to a research letter in this week's issue of the medical journal, the Lancet.
While the woman was a health worker with some occupational exposure to the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, tests on the strain of the virus she carried showed an identical match to those of the sperm donor.
Professor Bertfried Matz, author of the research letter and a virologist at the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Bonn, tells United Press International: "The likelihood of an identical match if this donor did not give the infection to this woman are absolutely zero."
Documented cases of women contracting HIV through artificial insemination are rare. The few that have occurred were largely in the early 1980s before accurate testing for HIV was possible.
Artificial insemination is a known way to transmit infections such as syphilis, hepatitis and HIV. To reduce the risk the sperm donor should be tested when he gives the sperm. The sperm should then be frozen for three to six months, and then the donor should be retested. Only after that should the sperm be used. However, while this procedure is required in Britain it is not mandatory in many countries, including Germany. Says Matz: "Many gynecologists are not at all aware of the risk. And certainly this patient was not."
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine all recommend that this procedure be followed. However, it is not a federal law.
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