Word: blood
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...last week expanded the number of Americans who should consider whether to be tested for exposure to a disease that is still largely confined to male homosexuals, bisexuals and intravenous drug users. Although only 683 of the nation's current total of 32,825 AIDS cases resulted from tainted blood transfusions, the CDC estimates that as many as 12,000 of the 34 million who received blood before it was screened may have been infected. The CDC and the American Red Cross recommended that physicians consider offering AIDS tests to some of the 9 million individuals still living who received...
...well as widespread criticism of the CDC. The outcry may have been exacerbated by the way in which the advisory became public. It was leaked early last week and was only released by the CDC, in more cautious language, several days later. Immediately following the leak, telephone lines at blood centers and American Red Cross chapters were flooded with calls from panicky transfusion recipients, and top public health officials from New York State, New York City and New Jersey issued a statement questioning the wisdom of the CDC proposal...
Puzzled physicians worry that the CDC advisory will inspire fear in a large number of people who are unlikely to have had any exposure to AIDS. Health officials estimate that from 1978 to April 1985 only one in every 2,500 units of blood was contaminated. The current risk of AIDS contamination is one in every 250,000 units of donated blood. Says New York City Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph: "To give the impression that everybody who has ever received a transfusion should get themselves tested is both alarmist and has no basis in probability." But CDC officials note that...
...When were the transfusions administered? The risk period was from 1978 until April 1985, but the earlier the blood was received, the lower the infection risk...
...much blood did the patient receive? The leukemia patients in the Sloan- Kettering study received an average of 164 transfusions over a period of six months to two years. Patients who do not have a blood-related health problem receive an average of three pints of blood. Even among those massively transfused leukemia patients, only 16 out of the 204 subsequently tested positive for exposure to AIDS...