Diagnostic follow-up of blood donors with indeterminate results to Western Blot for HIV infection in Palermo, Sicily

27,343 blood donors, were tested for HIV infection at the Poli- clinico of Palermo in the period 1999-2001 by using a com- mercial ELISA as screening test and a commercial Western Blot (WB) as confirmatory test. HIV infection was detected in two subjects, whereas five individuals reacted faintly at the screening and tested indeterminate at the confirmatory test showing the presence of only one band for gp41 (four cases) or p24 (one case). A one year follow-up was performed in these patients. All donors but one, spontaneously seroreverted during the follow-up; the only one who persisted as WB inde- terminate, tested also negative for HIV RNA by PCR assay at the end of follow-up. In conclusio…

Prevalenza di infezione da virus erpetico di tipo 8 (HHV8) in tossicodipendenti afferenti ai Servizi Pubblici per il Trattamento delle Tossicodipendenze (Ser.T.) dell’area palermitana

Prevalenza di infezione da patogeni a trasmissione ematica (HIV, HBV, HCV) in tossicodipendenti afferenti ai SERT dell’area palermitana

Sieroepidemiologia dei virus epatitici in un gruppo di bambini adottati dall'estero

“Evidence of HIV-1 second-generation recombinant strains (SGRs) in Sicily: sequence analysis of gag, pol, and env genes.”

Sieroprevalenza dell'infezione da virus dell'epatite A nella provincia di Palermo

Prevalenza di infezione da patogeni a trasmissione ematica (HIV,HBV,HCV)in tossicodipendenti afferenti ai SERT dell'area palermitana

Background. Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is primarily caused by human herpesvirus (HHV)-8 infection, and the risk is increased with high HHV-8 lytic or latent antibody titers or the detection of HHV-8 DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Host genes important for control of HHV-8 infection are not well characterized. Methods. In 172 HHV-8 latent nuclear antigen (LANA)-seropositive adults in Italy without KS, we examined correlations of common variants in host immune genes with the detection of HHV-8 DNA in PBMCs and with high lytic and latent antibody titers. Twenty-eight single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 14 genes were analyzed. We detected HHV-8 DNA in PBMCs with real-time amplificati…

Prevalenza di infezione da HBV in donne gravide a Palermo,2001-2003