Miami Herald - Wednesday, September 11, 1985
Paul Saltzman, Herald Staff Writer

The blood was frozen and stored. Now it's being thawed and tested for HTLV III, the AIDS virus, as part of a national study aimed at measuring how the fatal disease is transmitted through blood transfusions.

The five-year, federally funded study is expected to provide important clues about how acquired immune deficiency syndrome is passed from person to person -- for instance, whether the sex or age of the donor or recipient may affect the likelihood of transmission.

But it also presents the researchers with a problem: how to tell someone who gave blood nearly a year ago that they may have AIDS.

And there's an even more ticklish situation: how to tell those given the tainted blood or blood components that they, too, may now have AIDS.

"We don't want to freak people out," said Tom Donia, a spokesman for the South Florida Blood Service.

The blood bank, which provides blood to hospitals in Dade County and South Broward, is doing some of the research under contract with the University of Miami School of Medicine. Miami is one of four medical centers involved in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study.

Dr. Bruce Lenes, the blood bank's medical director, sees a positive side to people being told of their positive results, even months later.

"They were already exposed because there was no way of determining back then which units of blood had the (AIDS) antibody," Lenes said. "Now we can tell people what to expect, prevent them from donating blood, and they can help us learn more about the disease."

Statistically, about 60 of the 30,000 South Florida participants in the study are expected to show positive results for the AIDS antibody, a germ-fighter the body develops when exposed to the AIDS virus. That part of the study is just starting.

Because blood is divided into red cells, platelets, plasma and other components, the blood of those 60 people may have been passed on to about 150 others, Lenes said. Because people who get transfusions usually are very sick, probably only about 75 of them are still alive, he said.

Some already may have developed recognizable signs of AIDS, such as persistent infection by germs a healthy person could easily fight off. The disease's incubation period is also something being studied.

All will be offered free testing and counseling, though continuing hospital expenses will not be covered.

Neither the South Florida Blood Service nor other blood banks in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco that are taking part in the study face any legal liability for passing along tainted blood, Donia said, "because there's nothing we could have done about it at the time."

Aside from insights into what factors help or hinder AIDS transmission through blood, the study also should measure the effectiveness of the current AIDS screen, the HTLV-III antibody test, Lenes said.

With 200,000 blood samples nationwide, the researchers, led by Dr. James Mosley of the University of Southern California, can return to the samples to try any new AIDS tests that may be developed, Lenes said. That way, blood banks can use the most effective tests and limit the risk of tainted blood getting into the public blood supply.
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