Statement Concerning Transfusions and HIV / AIDS


Statement Concerning Transfusions and HIV / AIDS

CDC NATIONAL AIDS HOTLINE TRAINING BULLETIN #2 - April 10, 1992
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

This is a statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concerning transfusions and HIV infection/AIDS.

As of the end of February 1992, CDC had received reports of 4,770 AIDS cases (294 of these in children under 13) resulting from receipt of blood transfusions, blood components, or tissue. Most of these cases are due to transfusions received before March 1985, when HIV screening of blood and blood products began; only 20 cases (out of the total 4,770) have resulted from screened blood. In March 1987 (MMWR 1987;36:137-140), CDC recommended that physicians should consider offering HIV antibody testing to patients who received transfusions between 1978 and late spring of 1985.

Studies estimating the risk of becoming infected with HIV from a blood transfusion screened as negative for HIV antibody have been conducted on numerous populations. Early estimates ranged from 1 in 38,000 to 1 in 300,000 per unit of transfused blood. A study by the University of California, San Francisco, of blood donations made in San Francisco between November 1987 and December 1989 estimated this risk to be around 1 in every 61,000 units of transfused blood. A study using data from more than 17 million American Red Cross blood donations in 1987 estimated that the odds of contracting HIV infection were roughly 1 in every 153,000 units of transfused blood. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Red Cross (ARC) of ARC blood donors (approximately half of the U.S. blood supply) estimated that the risk of HIV transmission from screened blood in 1990 was 1 in 225,000 units.

These figures are accurate for the populations studied and the periods in which the studies were conducted. They provide useful information for estimating this risk for the general population.

It is important to understand that HIV infections from transfusions of blood screened as negative for HIV antibody have been extremely rare and have become progressively infrequent, even in areas with high HIV prevalence rates.

Keywords: Blood transfusions. Screening. Seropositive results. Seronegative results. Western blot. ELISA.

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Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeard in 1992. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1992. AEGIS.