HTLV-III, AIDS, and the Brain

Abstract

Two timely and important articles in this issue of the Journal deal with infection of the central nervous system by the human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type III (HTLV-III). The article by Ho et al.¹ indicates that acute infection of the central nervous system occurs with seroconversion to the HTLV-III agent. This study further indicates that certain patients with HTLV-III infection have had neurologic disease but no clinical manifestations of immunodeficiency, although this needs more precise documentation. The article by Resnick et al.² documents the presence within the blood–brain barrier of a specific immunoglobulin to HTLV-III in patients with neurologic complications . . .