Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune (CT) - FRIDAY January 22, 1988 Edition: SPORTS FINAL Section: NEWS Page: 10 Word Count: 185
Jon Van, Science writer
Children who become severely anemic because of malaria are treated with blood transfusions, researchers found, and those transfusions often are contaminated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the microbe that causes AIDS.
The study was conducted by scientists from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as well as colleagues in Zaire and Belgium. It focused on youngsters hospitalized at Mama Yemo Hospital in Kinshasa, Zaire, one of central Africa's largest medical centers.
The researchers, led by Dr. Alan Greenberg of the Atlanta centers, found that more than 6 percent of the blood donated at Mama Yemo Hospital in 1985 was contaminated with HIV. In that year alone, it is estimated that 561 children received transfusions with tainted blood.
Though Mama Yemo Hospital has begun screening donated blood for HIV antibodies, these findings have serious implications for many developing countries where malaria and human acquired immune deficiency syndrome are widespread.
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