CAN REPEATED PLASMA DONATION BY ASYMPTOMATIC HIV-INFECTED INDIVIDUALSDELAY THE ONSET OF AIDS

Healthy HIV-positive regular donors of plasma in a programme of passiv e immunotherapy for AIDS patients were studied over a period of about two years. None developed symptoms of clinical progression; most seeme d to make substantial gains of CD4 cells by comparison with asymptomat ic individuals who were not donating. The effects of donation did not seem to diminish with repetition, and donor CD4 counts tended towards stabilizing within normal limits. Asymptomatic HIV-positive individual s were compared immunologically with 'normals' and people with AIDS, u sing a battery of 25 measurements on peripheral blood. The immunologic al profiles of donor and non-donor asymptomatics, indistinguishable at the start, became dissimilar: donors' profiles resembled AIDS less, n on-donors became less like 'normal' and a few non-donor results could not be distinguished from AIDS. Improvement in the CD4 counts and amel ioration of the immunological profile in donors provide prima facie ev idence that plasmapheresis may be therapeutic for asymptomatic HIV-pos itive people. Further studies are justified.