Santa Ana : Kits Arrive to Test Blood for Exposure to AIDS

Kits to test blood donations for evidence of exposure to the virus believed responsible for AIDS arrived Tuesday at the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross, said Dr. Benjamin Spindler, the chapter’s medical director of blood services.

The test, licensed Saturday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, can determine only whether people have been exposed to the Human T-cell Leukemia III virus, not whether they have or will get acquired immune deficiency syndrome. It was developed to halt the spread of the often fatal disease through transfusions of blood or blood products.

Spindler said kits will be put in use as soon as the laboratory staff is familiar with test procedures. “We hope to be testing every unit of blood that comes in by the middle of March,” he said.

Health officials have asked people in high-risk groups for AIDS--gay or bisexual men, Haitians, intravenous drug users and hemophiliacs--not to seek tests at Red Cross centers or blood banks because the test produces a significant number of false negative and positive reactions.