Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, November 30, 1993
John Carman
The Portland blood center had a spotty history, at best, of protecting its blood supply from HIV contamination. It surrendered its license to test blood in mid-1991, but had resumed testing in January this year. Langer wondered when the FDA had last inspected the center.
Kessler couldn't answer the question. But two months after the interview, in July, FDA inspectors flew to Portland to look at the Red Cross center. They issued 35 citations for violations of testing guidelines.
The inference is chilling. "Frontline," in an installment tonight called "AIDS, Blood and Politics" (11 p.m. on Channel 9), suggests that HIV-contaminated blood is still being given to patients through transfusions and in plasma-based medication for hemophiliacs.
UNCERTAIN TEST RESULTS
The blood-bank problem was supposed to have been solved in 1985 -- too late to save thousands of lives -- with the introduction of a test to detect the virus. But "Frontline" reports that the test is complex, it's difficult to track blood supplies, there is no central system for gathering information about HIV infections from blood transfusions, and problems have persisted into the 1990s at some of the nation's largest blood banks.
That won't be news to Northern Californians who've followed the case of the Irwin Memorial Blood Center in San Francisco, which has been sparring with the FDA since inspectors cited it in 1992 for improper record keeping, mislabeling blood samples and alleged training deficiencies. Officials at the blood center, which is mentioned in passing in the "Frontline" report, have insisted that the blood supply there is safe.
No one knows the extent of the problem nationally -- specifically the number of blood-transfusion patients exposed to the AIDS virus since 1985 -- and "Frontline" doesn't hazard an estimate of its own.
Instead, the bulk of the program is a review of the failures to protect blood supplies in the early 1980s. The story is a classic public-health tragedy, one of several such tragedies clinging to the spread of AIDS in the United States.
A WARY INDUSTRY
AIDS was poorly understood. The blood-bank industry was unconvinced that the disease was transmitted through blood supplies and wary of the expensive prospect of testing. The industry and the FDA were slow to heed warnings from the Centers for Disease Control. And gay-rights advocates objected to blood donors being questioned about their sexual preference.
Opinions clashed in a crucial FDA advisory meeting on January 4, 1983, and no remedial action was taken. Not only were tests rejected, but the American Association of Blood Banks trade group and the American Red Cross subsequently issued a joint statement saying that "direct or indirect questions about a donor's sexual preference are inappropriate."
Lives pivoted on faulty decisions that resulted from insufficient knowledge and self-interested conclusions a decade ago.
The blood supply is unquestionably safer now. But tonight's "Frontline," a collaboration with PBS' "Health Quarterly" program, cautions viewers that safer isn't the same as fail-safe.
CAPTION: PHOTO
Eddie Haneffant, 9, was infected with HIV-contaminated blood at 3
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