Oral HIV-1 recovery in the presence of periodontal disease

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Abstract
To determine whether a significant association occurs between the presence of various periodontal diseases and recoverable infectious HIV-I in the saliva of injecting drug users. Five hundred and fifty-one injecting drug users were recruited from various programs associated with the Beth Israel Medical Center. Examiners were 'blinded' to the subject's HIV-I serostatus. A socio-economic and risk factors' survey was conducted and a complete oral examination, including periodontal disease indices was performed. Whole saliva and blood were collected for virus culture. Recovery of infectious HIV-I in saliva related to presence of periodontal diseases. Those HIV-I seropositive subjects with periodontal diseases did not differ from those HIV-I seropositive subjects without periodontal disease in mean age and immune status. Less than 1% of the HIV-I seropositive subjects had cultivable HIV-I in their saliva while it was present in 78% of PBMCs and 35% of the sera. There was no significant association between infectious HIV-I in saliva, serum, or PBMCs and any of the various periodontal diseases. The presence of periodontal disease in HIV-I seropositive injecting drug users does not appear to be a potential risk factor for infectious HIV-I in saliva, probably due to the various anti-viral components of saliva.