Use of Women’s Blood Banks to Reduce AIDS Threat Urged

A Santa Monica-based group has proposed the formation of women’s blood banks to prevent the spread of AIDS through blood transfusions.

The American Assn. of Women Voters said in its January newsletter that women “can and must protect American children and loved family members by providing clean and untainted blood for those in need of transfusions.

Leslie Dutton, president of the organization, said she will contact local Red Cross and health officials in an attempt to set up such a blood bank on the Westside. She said the group is using its newsletter to encourage women in other parts of the country to donate to their own blood banks.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, usually between homosexual men. The virus can also be spread through blood transfusions.

Researchers have not developed a method to screen blood donations for the virus. But blood donations from women are safer than those from men, because women are less likely to have the disease.