It is sad to say but some people can contract HIV from blood transfusions. Although in developed countries blood is tested and heat treated to avoid the infection there are still countries that do not have ways to test blood thoroughly and HIV is shared.
In China in 1999, over 70 people contracted HIV through transfusions used to save their lives at the time. The blood used to be bought from people wanting to make money and now it is banned due to contaminated blood. The Chinese government actually made it illegel to buy blood and HIV tests are mandatory.
Before 1985 in the United States, blood transfusions were a main source of the contraction of HIV. Before the HIV test came in 1985, it is estimated that over five thousand people contracted AIDS from blood.
The truth is that now we do not have to worry about the issue of getting HIV from blood because of all the procedures that the United States has to test blood, but it is very sad to knw that what was used to save a life actually ended it.
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Ashley, this belongs in your weekly blog not as a separate blog. Also giving me one sentence isn't what I envisioned. How many people contract HIV from blood transfusions? What else did you find in your research. You need to do a little more than what I see here.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning awhile ago about Ryan White and the effect his case had on AIDS. He was a hemophiliac who received transfusions annually and contracted AIDS this way. There is an entire movie on his life, or rather his rejection from his community and becoming the poster child for HIV/AIDS. It seems to have taken too much time for people to realize the damage that was done with the rate that the virus has climbed. In all technicality, it is the nurses and doctors who were single handedly transmitting the virus.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. It is a shame that due to a lack of resources and/or knowledge, a life that should have been saved was in fact ended.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting to me about this article is how far we have come. Now HIV positive blood transfusions seem minor compared to the number of people infected with the disease through means of sexual interaction. This shows one of two things; either the culture of the US has changed a great deal sexually or there was some significant event or set of events that took place to shift those statistics to another category.
I think your second assumption is more correct Justin. Although the first is plausible, I personally think that human beings have had a sense of promiscuity throughout the centuries. I doubt that at this point we are most sexually active (baby boom, flower power are most recent that come to mind. Although during the fifties there was also a sense of monogamy, the increase in babies proves this activity.). Essentially, it once again comes down to education and knowledge. I think the shift from the primary source of infection from transfusions to intercourse lies with the fact that after people found out the transfer of HIV is primarily through blood, the obvious need for screening was implemented for transfusions. They now knew the problem. However, with intercourse, it is not so clear. Unlike the transfusions where the doctor has the paper in front of them telling you if the blood is +/-, a person you have sex with may or may not have physical symptoms and thus you have no proof. You are simply taking the risk.
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