Two Contract HIV From Donation

AP | 7/19/02

[kattracks]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jul 19, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Two people have contracted HIV from blood transfusions provided by a regional blood bank that failed to detect an infected donor, officials said.

The incident marks the second time since the nation's blood banks implemented new screening technology in 1999 that HIV has been transmitted through a transfusion, according to Florida Blood Services. The first case infected a man in San Antonio, Texas, in September.

The victims, one young adult and one in the mid-60s, were told Wednesday they contracted HIV from blood and plasma transfusions in Hillsborough and Pinellas county hospitals, according to Florida Blood Services, which processed the blood.

The donor gave infected blood on May 11, but had contracted the disease so recently that tests did not detect it, said German LeParc, chief medical officer for the blood bank. The virus takes seven to 10 days to build up sufficiently for detection.

When the donor returned to give blood again May 30, it tested positive for HIV and that donation was destroyed, LeParc said. The donor was notified and officials began tracking down patients who received the previous donation.

Experts said the chance of getting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from donated blood is one in 2 million to 3 million transfusions, and they stress that the nation's blood supply remains very safe.

---

On the Net:

Florida Blood Services: http://www.fbsblood.org

Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[concerned about politics]

I am also wondering why at this time, this did not hit major headline news.

It's politically incorrect to report anything negative that may be associated with homosexuality.
Unfortunatly, many innocent lives have been lost, but they are irrelivant when it comes to the good of the Socialist collective.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

This is so sad. I pray for these victims with all my heart.

I too got a viral infection from a bad blood transfusion in 1980. This is a life changing situation for these people.

I hope they sue the pants off this blood bank. There is NO EXCUSE for this. Every bag of blood is to be screened. Unless they sue, and it hurts the "industry" that is supposed to protect us and deliver life saving blood, this could happen again.

I just find it unbelievable that this happened. I worked in a supervisor capacity for a blood bank. There are proceedures in place that could NOT have been followed. Even if the infected person didn't know that he/or she was infected,.. the blood bank SHOULD have caught it and informed them. This is so sad, and so unbelievable.

Prayers for all the victims involved. Pinging the bloodhounds I can recall by memory.. please ping this to the rest of the bloodhounds. God Bless!!

[concerned about politics]

Why do high-risk folk insist on donating blood?

Misery loves the company.

[concerned about politics]

You would think with all those compassionate Dems down here, there would be a huge surplus!

Dems don't give. They take.

[concerned about politics]

If I remember right, it's been traced to a single individual who was a switch hitter and an IV drug user who picked it up somewhere on the trade routes in Central Africa.

I've read reports, and thought it was common knowledge because that's what everyone I've heard talk about it says, it was traced back to one homosexual flight assistant who brought it back from overseas. He became the first US case.
Remember, the homosexuals even tried to say the Lord God was a sodomite. No joke.
I'm sure they've tried to distract the story away from themselves to a popular sports figure. They always say popular figures were gay. They just pull famous names out of a hat.

[Great Dane]

The donor gave infected blood on May 11, but had contracted the disease so recently that tests did not detect it, said German LeParc, chief medical officer for the blood bank. The virus takes seven to 10 days to build up sufficiently for detection.

But couldn't that be avoided by heat-treating plasma, or is that only effective against Hep-C.

[AppyPappy]

Gays brought AIDS to America.

The first carrier has been identified as a homosexual airline worker.

Trivia: AIDS was known by another name before it became AIDS. What name was given to it?

[concerned about politics]

Trivia: AIDS was known by another name before it became AIDS. What name was given to it?

Night of the Living Dead?

[AppyPappy]

Time's up: It was known as "Gay Cancer".

[concerned about politics]

Time's up: It was known as "Gay Cancer".

Awhhhh. I was using a search engine and had to read about dead children from the first link, and AIDs spreading to different countries like wind. I should have waited.

[OldFriend]

It is my understanding that the Red Cross continued to solicit blood donations in the most notoriously gay sections of San Francisco.

The impression most of us have of gays is their unmatched utter selfishness and disregard for the lives of others.

[Dengar01]

This story is so sad. It's tragic to see how PC-thinking puts everyone at risk.

Exactly

[Minnesoootan]

I've always wondered,I suppose this thread is as good of place as any to look for an answer....if you receive whole blood from another person,do you now share the persons DNA??

[RonF]

No. The cells in transfused blood don't reproduce, but slowly die off and are replaced by one's own blood as the blood-cell producing cells in your bone marrow (and elsewhere) operate on their normal cycle.

If a DNA profile was performed on your blood soon after you had received a transfusion, there'd be some confusion, as both profiles would be mixed together. But after a few weeks, the transfused cells would be gone.

[Minnesoootan]

Thanks for the answer to a question that has always bothered me,but out of laziness I never researched.

[gracie1]

I am wondering why this indivual attempted to donate again a mere 2 weeks later. I am thinking they knew something was up and was using the screening done by the blood bank to confirm.

I used to work for a plasma center and you can donate plasma twice a week. The article says he also got plasma, so maybe he got it from the plasma. They use the same PCR testing as they use on whole blood.

If anyone came up positive for anything, they were contacted confidentialy and their name put into a national data bank. They then go back 6 months and pull all product that included that donors plasma. Believe me, the record keeping they do is astounding.

[gracie1]

Technically, they don't pay for blood. But with plasma, the procedure takes about 1-2 hours as opposed to 15-20 minutes for whole blood. They also need huge quanities to manufacture their products, like factor VIII. So they pay donors to donate the max, twice a week. They compensate for time involved, not the product itself. Yeah, I know, splitting hairs.

[FormerLib]

If you want to ignore the fact that homosexuals are attempting to have themselves removed from the list of high risk behaviors that disallow one from donating blood, go ahead!

Just don't expect us to follow your example.

[FormerLib]

Actually, it was first known as GRID (Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency).

[WL-law]

If you want to get freaked out because there have been two contamination incidents since 1999 then go ahead.

That may be all that have been discovered -- but, as this story shows, this was only discovered because this particular donor returned to donate again. Are you confident, on these facts, that there are no undiscovered cases? I'm not, and I would never take a transfusion if there was any ability to avoid it, i.e., if I had scheduled surgery I would donate my own blood in advance for use in the surgery.