Transfusion-Transmitted AIDS Reassessed

Abstract

When it appeared probable in late 1982 that the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) could be transmitted by transfusions of blood or blood components,¹ the Food and Drug Administration made a series of recommendations to reduce transmission by this route. In March 1983, the FDA recommended to establishments collecting whole blood and plasma that people with symptoms of AIDS, male homosexuals with multiple sex partners, intravenous drug abusers, and sexual partners of persons at increased risk for AIDS be asked not to donate.² After the causative agent of AIDS was identified in 1984 as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), enzyme-linked immunoassays . . .