The New York Times - December 29, 1985
Shelly Feuer Domash

"It's an irrational fear of the disease," said Dr. Theodore Robertson, director of Long Island Blood Services in Melville. The agency is the sole collector, processor and distributor of blood on Long Island.

Although blood donations usually decline during the holiday season, Dr. Robertson said statistics show that donations have been low all year, indicating a reluctance by donors to give blood.

"When we first merged in 1974 to become the Long Island Blood Services, we were only receiving 60,000 pints of blood a year," he said. "Gradually we went up and up until we reached 120,000 pints. Then AIDS become prominent, and horror stories came out, and the supply began to decrease."

He estimated that the number of donations declined 5 percent last year and an additional 5 percent this year, but he maintained that there was no chance of a blood shortage crisis over the holidays.

According to Dr. Robertson, there is no chance of being contaminated with acquired immune deficiency virus during a blood donation. "Everything we use is sterilized and shielded from contamination," he said. "It is only opened at the time it is put into the vein. Once it is used, it is thrown away."

AIDS is a disease that destroys the body's ability to fight illness. There have been nearly 15,00 cases in the United States since the disease was identified in 1979, mostly among homosexuals and intravenous drug users. About half the victims have died.

While blood donations on Long Island have been decreasing, there has been an increase in designated blood donors. According to experts at local hospitals, many people are asking friends or relatives to donate blood when they are scheduled for surgery.

"Many patients don't believe the blood supply is safe and want only a family member to donate blood. We try to discourage that," said Dr. Kandasamy Jagathambal, director of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center's blood bank in New Hyde Park.

Long Island Blood Services also discourages this procedure. "The blood may not be better, and in fact may not be as good," Dr. Robertson said.

He pointed out that more problems can arise from knowing the blood donor. He cited the example of a parent donating blood for a child, and an unforeseen problem arising such as the blood being incompatible. Parents would then have to deal with guilt over their blood donation, he said. He also feels that the lack of confidentiality for the donor might also result in problems if other medical trouble is found.

"We get calls every day asking about designated donors," he said. "Our policy is to be guided by the patient's decision. If we do do it, we require the physician to take the responsibility and to sign a release. We think it is wrong. We have found that designated donors tell us less than the whole truth because they are so anxious and pressured to give blood."

When a person donates blood, he or she is asked a series of questions and a small blood sample is taken. If accepted, a pint of blood is drawn and then tested for numerous diseases, including AIDS.

Currently, every pint of blood on Long Island is tested for AIDS before being distributed. The procedure involves testing for antibodies of the HTLV-III virus, believed to be the virus that causes AIDS.

Since last March, when the test was developed, over 300,000 units of blood have been tested on Long Island. If the initial screening shows positive for the antibody, a second, more expensive test called the "western blot" is administered. Approximately five-tenths of one percent of the blood tested on Long Island has been found positive for the AIDS antibody, according to officials at the Melville center. The presence of the antibody, however, does not necessarily mean that a person will contract AIDS.

Although the AIDS blood screening test is seen by most experts as a positive step in insuring the safety of the blood supply, it has brought on a new set of problems.

Joan Coll, public information officer for the New York Blood Center in Manhattan, says her agency's policy calls for strict confidentiality concerning the results of the AIDS antibody test, but there is no law governing that confidentiality.

Miss Coll says that only the donor is notified of a positive result. But experts say some people may be reluctant to donate blood for fear they may learn they have a disease for which there is no known cure or treatment, and which carries a strong public stigma.

Long Island Blood Services has begun to notify donors who tested positive for the AIDS antibody. "The final testing is being done on some of the donors," Dr. Robertson said. "They are all being notified, but it takes time."

With the present screening techniques, experts say the chance of a blood recipient's contracting AIDS through a transfusion is almost nonexistent.

"It's as safe as it could be," Dr. Jagathambal said.

But "nothing in the world in medicine is absolute," Dr. Robertson maintained.

Dr. Mark Kaplan, chief of infectious diseases and immunology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, said he feels the risk of contracting AIDS through transfusions has significantly decreased during the last year. "Nationwide, when those in high-risk groups were asked to refrain from donating blood," he said, "there was a 10 percent drop in donations."

He added that studies have shown that after extensive questioning following a blood donation, three-tenths of 1 percent of donors requested that their blood not be used because they feared it waas contaminated.

About 600 pints of blood are needed every day for patients in Long Island hospitals. Almost a third of that amount is obtained from European sources, mostly from Switzerland and southern Germany.

Europeans "don't move around as much, and have much more of a community spirit," Dr. Robertson said. "They have more sense of the community and of the well-being of fellow beings."

Officials at Long Island Blood Services say they are still optimistic that as the American public becomes more aware of the facts, the panic surrounding AIDS will diminish and the blood supply will once again increase.

"The public should know one thing," Dr. Robertson said. "The blood supply is safe."

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