Britain to test for A.I.D.S. in 2M donors

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 13

Britain to test for A.I.D.S. in 2M donors

NZPA staff correspondent London

About two million blood donors in Britain will be tested from September to see if they have been infected by the A.I.D.S. virus, says the “Guardian” newspaper. The tests are estimated to cost the transfusion services £ 2 million ($5.5 million). The type of test used to identify A.I.D.S. antibodies was developed by Dr Richard Tedder at Middlesex Hospital in London, and Professor Robin Weiss, director of the Institute of Cancer Research. But the “Guardian” reported that the presence of antibodies only shows that the blood donor has been infected — not that the donor is infectious or that the donor will develop the disease. An estimated 10 per cent of people with antibodies develop the disease. The test produced by the British manufacturer, Wellcome, it has been chosen by the Health Department in preference to versions in the United States because it is considered to be more accurate and easier to use. There is concern about the number of false positive tests. Even when leading American tests are 99 per cent accurate, between 4000

and 21,000 British donors would be mistakenly identified as having been infected. Donors with positive antibody results after rechecking will be warned that they risk spreading the infection by sexual intercourse, whether heterosexual or homosexual. The “Guardian” said that the Health Department’s decision favouring the Wellcome test follows on from a “British Medical Journal” warning from directors of all the British haemophilia centres that patients needing big blood transfusions may be running a one in 20 risk of being infected with the A.I.D.S. virus. The number of A.I.D.S. patients in Britain rose by 10 to 169 in May and it has proved fatal for 78 people.