Word: cdc
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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 transfusions between...
Though the recommendation was only the latest in a series of testing advisories to groups at risk of AIDS infection, the sweeping nature of the draft proposal caused considerable alarm as 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...
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...
...progress to the full-blown disease. As more cases are reported, researchers have come to realize that the chances of developing AIDS are greater in the second five years after infection than in the first. "As time goes on," says Dr. James Curran, a top AIDS epidemiologist at the CDC, "only a minority of infected people will remain healthy. I feel less optimistic about a normal life span for any infected person...
Last week CDC officials announced plans for a public forum to discuss further steps aimed at controlling the epidemic. At issue: whether AIDS blood tests should be made mandatory for couples seeking a marriage license, for women receiving prenatal care, and for people being admitted to hospitals and clinics where sexually transmitted diseases are treated. A premarital test, says Dr. Walter Dowdle, a deputy director of the CDC, "could provide an opportunity for counseling and protect the noninfected potential partner as well as future children...