Large-scale serological screening for cytomegalovirus antibodies in homosexual males by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

We compared an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with complement fixation and radioimmunoassay in determining the presence of immunoglobulin antibodies to cytomegalovirus. Of an initial 93 serum samples tested, the correlation between ELISA and radioimmunoassay was 98.9% and that between ELISA and complement fixation was 96.1%. ELISA was used to screen 1,123 homosexual men in San Francisco. Of 479 men attending a homosexual health fair, 35 (7%) lacked cytomegalovirus antibodies by ELISA. Only 15 (2%) of 644 homosexual men attending a municipal sexually transmitted disease clinic were found to be seronegative. All but one of the seronegatives detected by ELISA were also seronegative by radioimmunoassay and complement fixation. We conclude that ELISA can be used to reliably perform large-scale screening for the presence of immunoglobulin G antibodies to cytomegalovirus.