HIV Seroprevalence Rate at the Boston City Hospital

To the Editor: Hoff and associates 1 present an effective, practical way to estimate the prevalence of maternal infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the general population. As expected, seroprevalence rates were higher in inner-city hospitals than in metropolitan or suburban hospitals. We presume that Boston City Hospital was one of the three hospitals in the inner-city group. While Hoff and coworkers were studying the rate of HIV antibody in filter-paper specimens submitted to be screened for phenylketonuria, we were surveying the seroprevalence of HIV in women delivering at our hospital, by the anonymous testing of cord blood. With . . . No extract is available for articles shorter than 400 words.