The New York Times - November 17, 1985
Beth Sherman

A total of six pints of blood, Mrs. Arnold said, was required for a hip operation, which she had Wednesday. Since she was able to generate only three pints of her own blood, two friends and a neighbor volunteered to supply the rest.

"I felt uneasy about getting blood from a stranger, especially with everything you hear about AIDS," Mrs. Arnold, a 45-year-old bookkeeper who lives in Highland, Calif., said before having the surgery. "I think my own blood is the safest type I can get."

Like thousands of others in the United States, Mrs. Arnold has joined the ranks of people who store their own blood for use in elective surgery. Hospital officials and directors of blood banks say such donations constitute only a small percentage of the 12 million gallons of blood collected annually. But they also say demand for the procedure has more than doubled in recent years because many people fear that the virus of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS, can be transmitted through blood transfusions.

Fears Called Unwarranted

Officials say such fears are unwarranted because new blood-testing technigues screen out contaminated blood.

The Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said that of the 14,125 reported cases of AIDS, 251 involved getting the disease by receiving blood donations from individuals infected with the virus.

"The disease is so deadly and everyone is so afraid that patients are trying to minimize the risks," said Dr. Mark S. Lifshitz, head of the blood donor program at New York University Medical Center in New York. The disease, which destroys the body's immune system, is almost invariably fatal.

Dr. Lifshitz said he expected the number of donors of their own blood at the hospital to double this year. Last year, he said, 68 patients elected to supply their own blood for vascular, cosmetic and orthepedic surgery.

Most doctors agree that such donations, used for years by people with rare and odd blood types, are safer than paid or voluntary donations because of a lower chance of catching infectious diseases and developing a reaction to foreign antigens in the blood. However, doctors and blood bank officials expressed confidence about the safety of the country's voluntary blood supply.

Official Cites Screening Test

Gil Clark, executive director of the American Association of Blood Banks, one of the nation's three major voluntary blood organizations said a new biochemical test that screens out blood contaminated with the AIDS virus was considered highly effective by hospitals and blood banks. The test, approved last April and now used by all blood banks, detects the presence of the antibody to the AIDS virus in the blood.

Dr. Clark said that health officials began taking steps to reduce the risk of exposure to the AIDS virus through blood products as early as 1983, when the disease first emerged. At that time, several protective practices were begun, including issuing educational materials and questionnaires to potential donors and inspecting their arms to detect intravenous drug use. Despite these precautions, Dr. Clark said "AIDS hysteria" was sweeping the country.

At St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, the number of people seeking to become donors of their own blood has risen to three requests a month from three a year, said Gordon Lang, director of the hospital's blood bank. He said he expected St. Mary's to receive more than 300 requests in the next year.

Many hospitals and blood centers are also starting designated donor programs, which limit blood donors to people the patient knows.

Designated Donations Condemned

The voluntary blood organizations, however, have issued several joint statements condemning directed donations within the last three years. And many blood banks in the country will not accept designated blood because they feel it offers no greater guarantee of freedom from contamination than blood from unknown donors.

"We are afraid that in their attempts to help the patients' friends and family may not be totally honest in revealing their medical histories," said Dr. Joseph Bovy, professor of laboratory medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine.

At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the blood collected for directed donations has increased to more than 300 units a month this year from 20 units a month in 1983.

"People feel more comfortable knowing they are receiving blood from friends or family members," said Dr. Dennis Goldfinger, director of the hospital's blood bank. "It has become an important psychological aspect of patient care."

Health officials are also concerned that the rise in donations to oneself and other designated donations will deplete the existing voluntary blood supply, although it does not appear to have done so thus far.

Dr. Clark of the American Association of Blood Banks said the blood supply had fluctuated in some places but had generally remained stable.

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