The Impact of Routine HTLV-III Antibody Testing on Public Health

Extract

The appearance of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has brought suffering and death to those who are afflicted and, at the same time, has posed daunting challenges to those who care for the sufferers, to biomedicai scientists, and to those responsible for public health and public policy. Among these challenges is the protection of the nation's blood supply from contamination by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),¹ the causative agent of AIDS. This challenge was met rapidly by the development of laboratory tests to detect the presence of antibody against the virus. The application of these tests makes it possible to determine whether the person has been infected by the virus at some time and thus to exclude persons from donating blood or to discard blood already donated. In the past 15 months, the widespread application of these tests along with self-deferral and removal of HIV-positive subjects from the pool of donors has sharply reduced the likelihood of the virus being spread by way of blood products.