Miami Herald - Wednesday, June 27, 1984
Ena Naunton, Herald Medical Writer

The project also will find out whether the virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions. If the test works, it could be a giant step toward guaranteeing the safety of the nation's blood supply, researchers say.

"The research itself is not as important as the message that the blood supply is safe," said Dr. Bruce Lenes, associate director of the South Florida Blood Service. "We have to make sure that we can maintain it as safe as possible, and we are doing that."

If the test works, blood found to be positive for the newly discovered virus (called Human T-cell Lymphoma Virus type III or HTLV-III) will be rejected, said an official at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The test to do so, however, will not be available for at least six months.

Until then, blood samples will be stockpiled. The rest of the blood will be used for transfusions.

At present, researchers can say only that 90 percent of all AIDS victims show signs of the virus, but researchers don't know what this means.

"We don't know that a positive test result means AIDS," said Tom Donia, South Florida Blood Services' communications director. "For all we know, it could mean the donor is carrying AIDS or incubating AIDS or immune to AIDS. Or it may have absolutely nothing to do with AIDS."

During the earlier research, positive results were found in about one in 200 of apparently healthy people, said Dr. Luiz Barbosa of the national blood institute.

The sampling also will be done in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and involve about 200,000 donors. It may take several years of testing before some of the donors and recipients of the sampled blood learn that the blood one group gave and the other received contained the virus.

And that, Barbosa admitted, is "a very touchy subject."

"If we have 1,000 positives out of 200,000 donors, we can go to the people who underwent surgery and received the units of blood from the positive donors and follow the recipients and see if they become positive for the virus," Barbosa said. "Then we follow them for three years to see if they develop any symptoms."

Asked about the ethics of the matter, Barbosa said, "The donors will be selected randomly and, of course, they will have an informed consent form that will tell them they are part of a national research study and the tests include antibodies against a virus which has been linked to AIDS."

There is no sure test for AIDS. And no cure.

AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is an incurable disease believed to be passed through intimate contact with the blood and body fluids of a person who has it. Intravenous drug abuse, sexual practices that can cause skin abrasions and, rarely, blood transfusions, have been associated with contracting AIDS. No casual spread of the disease has ever been found.

Between January 1979 and June 18 this year, there were 4,918 cases of AIDS in the United States; 2,221 of these people died. Cases in the first quarter of 1984 were being reported nationally at the rate of 10 a day.

In Florida, there have been 337 cases. About half of that number have died. Fifty-two of the national cases and six in Florida have been linked to blood transfusions. Twenty seven are dead. Hemophiliacs, whose treatment for blood disease comes from pooled donated blood, account for 28 cases of AIDS nationally and two in Florida.

In April, Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler announced a "breakthrough" in AIDS research. It was the discovery, by a group of National Cancer Institute researchers, of HTLV-III antibodies (the "footprints" of virus infection) in 90 percent of AIDS victims. The virus antibodies were also found in 80 percent of people with a condition known as "pre-AIDS." Similar discoveries were reported in France.

The next step was to produce a test for HTLV-III, still regarded as experimental.

For the national "test of the test," South Florida Blood Service will collect about an extra five cubic centimeters of blood from each donor -- one hundredth of a normal "unit" drawn -- and freeze the serum, the white liquid left after removal of red blood cells. The frozen samples will then be stockpiled to await the testing material, which is still under development.

Blood bank officials are concerned that people who think they may be at risk of AIDS will see the test program as a chance to get a quick, free blood test for the disease. That is not the case.

"The purpose is to test the test," said Lenes. "We ask that individuals who are in the high-risk groups for AIDS not donate blood." High-risk groups, as defined by the national Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, include homosexual men, intravenous drug abusers and recently arrived Haitians.

Most healthy donors will never hear anything about their donation again, Lenes said.

CAPTION: PHOTO Margaret Heckler

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1984. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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