Since 1985 organ donors are routinely tested for the presence of HIV-antibodies, but prior to that time several patients acquired HIV-infection from grafts. In May 1984 a 65-year-old woman on hemodialysis received a cadaver kidney graft from a young iv drug addict. The transplant functioned perfectly with cyclosporin A immunosuppression. Retrospectively, 22 days after surgery HIV antigen was detected. At this time only a faint band of anti-p24 antibodies was found in the Western blot. Two years after surgery splenomegaly was found in the apparently healthy patient. During the third year thrombocytes fell and she developed lymphadenopathy and constitutional symptoms. Up to this time the immunological parameters were in the range of 10 healthy renal transplant patients with cyclosporin A treatment. In the 4th year T-lymphocytes dropped to values below 200 and the patient developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. A few months later a pulmonary node, which later proved to be a B-cell lymphoma, appeared. Slightly less than 5 years after transplantation the patient died from clinically diagnosed pulmonary embolism. The progression of the HIV-Infection in this patient and in one of 18 patients in published reports show that the incubation period is several years shorter in renal transplant patients than in those who acquire HIV from blood products.