HTLV-III Antibody in Intravenous Drug Abusers of Metropolitan Barcelona, Spain

To the Editor.  —The presence of antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) has been studied in patients affected by acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), AIDS-related complex, lymphadenopathy syndrome, in symptom-free individuals at high risk of developing AIDS, and in the general population.^" The presence of antibodies to HTVL-III in intravenous drug abusers (IDAs) has been reported as showing great geographic differences, from 87% in the United States⁵ to 1.5% in the United Kingdom.³In this letter, we report the preliminary results of a study of 92 consecutive heterosexual IDAs who were residents of metropolitan Barcelona, Spain, and admitted to our hospital because of infectious complications or for treatment of their drug addiction.All HTLV-III seropositive and sero-negative IDAs usually shared needles on more than one occasion. All patients were living in metropolitan Barcelona during their drug-abuse period. It is very improbable that they used needles from