Just in case you missed this:
Transmission of HIV-1 and HCV by Head-Butting (Research Letter)"
Lancet (11/08/97) Vol. 350, No. 9088, P. 1370; Brambilla, Andrea;
Pristera, Raffaele; Salvatori, Francesca; et al.
Following an automobile accident, two men who had never met
before had a fight, in which one man--an intravenous drug user
who was HIV-1 positive--head-butted the other. During the
assault, the other man's metal-rimmed glasses left open wounds on
the foreheads of both men. Three days after the fight, the man
who was head-butted tested HIV-1-negative. He developed symptoms
of primary HIV-1 infection two weeks later and tested positive
for both acute hepatitis B and for antibodies against all the
main HIV-1 structural proteins about three months after the
attack; HIV-1 EIA was negative, however. Researchers at the San
Raffaele Scientific Institute in Italy conducted DNA sequencing
of the two men's peripheral blood mononuclear cells 126 days
after the assault. Results compared against a control group
revealed a strong similarity between the men's HIV-1 DNA,
suggesting that the skin injuries from the head-butt provided
HIV-1 and HBV direct access to the bloodstream. The attacker had
also been infected with hepatitis C, but the researchers suggest
that the virus was not transmitted because the head-butter's HCV
viral burden was under 1,000 copies/mL plasma. |
