[Studies of AIDS in Lithuania]

The seroepidemiological survey of 400,000 persons aged 20-40 years and belonging to different AIDS risk groups, as well as blood donors, for the presence of antibodies to HIV has been carried out on the territory of Lithuania. This investigation has been made with the use of the assay systems "Antigen", "Peptoscreen" and "Vector" manufactured in the USSR, as well as commercial assay systems from foreign manufacturers, such as Du Pont de Nemours Inc., Organon N. V., Abbott Laboratories, Serodia. The comparison of the results thus obtained has revealed that high frequency of false positive results is characteristic of all assay systems under study, including immunoblotting. These data indicate that test systems based on different acting principles should be used for the detection of anti-HIV antibodies. For the first time a HIV-infected resident of Lithuania has been detected. The investigation carried out in Lithuania has shown that HIV infection is not widely spread in this region, but due to some objective reasons this does not preclude the necessity of the constant epidemiological surveillance of this infection throughout this territory in order to bar the way to this infection.