Transfusion-Associated AIDS — A Cause for Concern

Abstract

In 1943 Beeson¹ first reported jaundice in patients who had received blood or plasma transfusions and suggested that their illness resembled infectious hepatitis. Now, some 40 years later, the transmission of hepatitis by at least four different blood-borne viruses is a recognized risk of transfusion, and numerous other infectious agents are listed as being transmissible by blood and blood products.² In this issue Curran and co-authors³ present data suggesting that the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) should be added to that list. They report 18 cases of AIDS in adults who were not in a high-risk group but who had received . . .