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Blood bank on alert for HIV-positive donations

Sixty-six units of donated blood infected with HIV were detected and destroyed last year, the Chinese Blood Services Foundation said yesterday.

"Sixty-six units of blood out of 1.6 million were found to be infected with HIV last year," foundation chairman Lin Juo-sin (林國信) said.

"However, we disposed of all the infected blood appropriately," he said.

The foundation said that the names of 60 or so HIV-positive blood donors had been added to departmental records.

None of the donors had previously been listed with the Department of Health as HIV-positive, Lin said.

Lin also said that while nine patients receiving transfusions had contracted HIV from donated blood since the 1980s, the foundation's testing facilities had improved significantly in recent years.

"With the testing equipment we use now, it takes about 20 days for us to detect HIV in donated blood," he said.

However, Lin said the foundation was unable to store all the blood it received for as long as 20 days.

"The latest technology is actually able to detect HIV in blood samples in about 10 days," Lin said.

However, it is very expensive and would cost up to NT$800 million each year for us to use," he said.

He added that the only way the foundation could acquire the technology, known as nucleic-acid testing or NAT, would be if the government subsidized the service.

Ou Nai-ming (歐乃銘), the director of the Center for Disease Control's AIDS and STDs division, said that the government was limited in this area financially and that bird flu and SARS were priorities in dividing up the health budget.

Ou also raised another problem with HIV detection in blood samples.

"Someone who has just contracted HIV does not necessarily produce enough antibodies for tests to detect the virus immediately," Ou said.

"There is an incubation period of around six to 12 weeks before the virus can be readily detected," he said.

However, Ou also stressed that health standards for blood donors had been put in place by the center to ensure safe use of the nation's only non-profit blood bank.

Department rules also prevent homosexuals and bisexuals from donating blood.

"This is a long-standing policy at the center and is generally accepted worldwide," Ou said.

Ou also stressed that the center's standards had not been drawn up in response to reports of the 66 HIV-positive units of donated blood.

However, the People with HIV/AIDS Rights-Advocacy Association disagreed with the center's policy.

"HIV comes not from who you are, but from what you do," said Ivory Lin (林宜慧), the association's secretary general.

"Barring homosexuals and bisexuals from donating blood is discriminatory," Lin said.

"It also leads heterosexuals ... to believe that HIV/AIDS has nothing to do with them," Lin said.

The association also said the policy was unworkable.

"It's not practical because you cannot determine someone's sexual orientation simply from appearances when they donate blood," Lin said.
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