The Risk of Developing AIDS in Hemophiliac and Homosexual Men

To the Editor.— The interesting article by Jason et al 1 fails to mention what percentage of the hemophiliac population they analyzed was bisexual or homosexual. This may have important ramifications in a small series. If there were a small group, eg, seven individuals (9% of the total), that fit into this category and also had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the total for the first column of Table 1 of their article, omitting those with a dual risk, would be 10/72 = 14%. If none of these individuals had AIDS, then the ratio would be even closer (17/72 = 24%) to that of homosexuals (27%). More importantly, this latter result, ie, a reduced risk in those homosexuals exposed to lyophilized factor VIII, might mean that these individuals had been protected by a putative vaccine (lyophilized plasma containing the AIDS virus). Patients with hemophilia infected with human immunodeficiency virus appear to develop clinical