Patients Contracted HIV Through Red Cross Blood

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Patients Contracted HIV Through Red Cross Blood

Kyodo News Service (10/07/99)

The Japanese Red Cross Society announced Thursday that contaminated blood donated through the Red Cross has infected one person with HIV, and another individual may have also contracted the virus from the same blood. The screening process apparently did not catch the virus before it was given to two patients, because the infected donor was tested during window period before HIV-specific antibodies appear. Nucleic acid amplification tests are being used throughout Japan because they decrease the window period for testing blood by half; however, the Kanto blood collection center--the location where the infected donor gave blood--was not yet using the method when it accepted the blood in July. This is the second time that patients have contracted HIV by receiving blood donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

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