More on anti-HIV antibodies in Brazilian Indians

The authors report the results of a survey carried out on 307 sera of Amerindians living deep in the Amazonian jungle, in the southeast region of Para state between the rivers Xingu and Tocantins, in conditions of isolation very similar to those of the tribes screened in Venezuela and French Guiana. The authors studied 121 sera of the tribe Xikrin do Catete, 69 sera of the tribe Xikrin do Bacaja 71 sera of the tribe Paracana do Bom Jardim and 46 sera of the tribe Paracana do Marudjewara. All 307 samples were collected in 1985, and screened for anti-HIV antibodies in 1986, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All were negative, except for 10 sera which showed low reactivity (between 1 multiplied by 1 and 3 multiplied by 5 times the cut-off). Nevertheless, when tested by the Western blot technique, all were negative.