AIDS Tests Sent to Blood Banks After U.S. Approval

The government approved a screening test for AIDS on Saturday that officials called “the answer to the prayers of thousands,” and test kits that shortly will number in the millions began moving almost immediately to blood banks around the nation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret M. Heckler and Frank E. Young, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, announced that Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago, Ill., had been licensed to market the AIDS test.

Heckler said the test “adds a major dimension of protection to our present safeguards . . . . This test is, in fact, the answer to the prayers of thousands of Americans facing surgery or otherwise requiring blood.”

Qualms About Test

But medical officials said Saturday that the blood test will be so time-consuming and expensive that carrying it out could disrupt other public health care systems.

“This test is useful to further protect the nation’s blood supply. It should not be used for other purposes at this time,” said George Degnon, executive director of the Assn. of State and Territorial Health Officials, which is meeting in Atlanta.

Kristine Gebbie, president of the state health group, said administering the AIDS test will present serious problems for public health agencies around the nation.

“This test is a public education nightmare,” she said. “People are panicking because of the high mortality rate from AIDS. We still have a lot of discussing to do with folks.”

Detects Antibodies

The test detects antibodies to the AIDS virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the nation’s blood supply. The test’s approval comes less than a year after researchers first isolated the virus that causes the usually fatal disease.

Health officials have thus far discovered 113 cases of AIDS that they attribute to transfused blood, and knowledge that the disease can be spread through blood transfusions has left millions concerned about catching the disease.

Abbott executives at the news conference said shipments were begining Saturday afternoon to blood banks in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and some blood banks would have the tests in hand by nightfall.

Dr. S. Gerald Sandler, associate vice president of the American Red Cross, said the test would be in all Red Cross blood banks “in a few days.” The only remaining obstacle is negotiating a contract with Abbott, Sandler told a reporter after Saturday’s news conference, with those negotiations “probably starting over in that third row right there,” pointing to a row of seats in the HHS auditorium.

Jack W. Schuler, executive vice president of Abbott, said the firm is now beginning to produce about 2 million test kits a month, enough to test all donated blood in the United States. It will cost about $6 per test.

Other Firms Apply

Four other companies also have applied for FDA approval to produce the test, and Heckler said she expects approval to be granted soon. Two more producers may be licensed later this week, she said.

AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is a viral infection that destroys the body’s immune system and leaves it vulnerable to other diseases. It is spread by body fluids, including semen and blood. Its principal victims have been homosexual men, drug abusers and hemophiliacs.

As of Feb. 25, the Centers for Disease Control reported 8,597 cases in the United States. More than 4,000 of those affected have died.