Testing for A.I.D.S.

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 3

Testing for A.I.D.S.

PA Wellington Blood donor testing for A.I.D.S. (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) will begin in about six weeks, said the Minister of Health, Dr Bassett, yesterday. Full-scale testing is expected to start in late September by the Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin blood transfusion services. The procedure would protect the blood bank, Dr Bassett said. “It is to say to people who depend on blood for transfusion purposes, to haemophiliacs who rely on blood products, ‘You can have confidence in your blood bank’,” he said.

People who might be a suspected A.I.D.S. carrier would be referred to hospital board’s diagnostic services for testing. Those tests were expected to start two weeks later and the boards would be expected to supply the services with the same type of equipment, he said. The test, kits contain a small plastic container with 96 indentations. Each indentation has been impregnated with the A.I.D.S. virus. A sample of the donor’s blood will be put into each indentation and it will be washed. If any A.I.D.S. antibodies are present, the individual identation will turn yellow. Blood from that donor will then be immediately destroyed, Dr Bassett said.

There was no question of any contaminated blood going into the blood bank. The donor would be advised to see his or her doctor. No cost of the kits, of American manufacture, was given by Dr Bassett, for commercial reasons, but he said that further tenders would be called in December for supplies from April next year.