Absence of Antibodies to Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Homosexual, Hemophiliac, and Heterosexual Men in Budapest, Hungary in 1983–1984

Only a limited number of cases of AIDS have been reported from Eastern Europe, and in particular, as of July 1986, AIDS has not been diagnosed in Hungary. This observation led the author to ask, after the discovery of the etiologic agent of AIDS in 1984, whether populations at presumed risk in Budapest had already been exposed to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Because the earliest evidence of the epidemic in other industrialized nations has been seen in homosexual men, intravenous drug abusers, and patients with hemophilia treated with clotting-factor concentrates, he retrospectively tested for antibodies to HIV in sera obtained in 1983-1984 from patients with mild or severe hemophilia A and from male homosexual volunteers.