Red Cross Urges AIDS Tests for Blood Recipients

American Red Cross officials, supporting federal guidelines that will be published later this month, recommended Tuesday that some people who received blood transfusions between 1978 and 1985 undergo an AIDS antibody test.

The Red Cross recommended that physicians offer the tests to patients who received large amounts of blood, to recipients of transfusions in cities where the disease has been found most prevalent--including Los Angeles--and to recipients most likely to transmit AIDS, such as sexually active adults, drug abusers and women of childbearing age.

In addition, the Red Cross recommended testing for those who received blood immediately before the first reliable AIDS virus test was developed in the spring of 1985, when the AIDS epidemic was spreading rapidly.

No Trace Earlier

Government scientists and the Red Cross recommend testing only those who got transfusions after 1977 because no trace of the AIDS virus had been found before then. There is “absolutely no chance” it was in the blood supply before 1978, a Red Cross official said.

The number of people infected by blood transfusions between 1978 and 1985 is expected to be relatively low, but a report by the federal Centers for Disease Control to be published later this month concluded that physicians should be alerted to the possibility that some recipients may have been infected.

The Times, in its Monday editions, reported the CDC’s 1978-85 testing recommendation and said federal health officials were trying to decide how sweeping the proposal should be.

Health officials stress that they want to avoid a panic among those who may have received blood transfusions during the seven-year period. “We’re talking about looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Lewellys F. Barker, senior vice president of the Red Cross. “There were very few infected people during that time.”

May Affect 1.5 Million

Of the nearly 32,000 cases of AIDS reported in the last six years, 657 have been among recipients of blood transfusions. The CDC has estimated that 1.5 million people may have been infected by blood transfusions between 1978 and 1985.

Dr. S. Gerald Sandler, vice president of American Red Cross medical operations, said 3.5 million to 4 million people receive blood transfusions each year, with more than half of the blood coming from the Red Cross.

The Red Cross did not recommend that all transfusion recipients from 1978 to 1985 be tested but said anyone who questions whether he or she was exposed to the AIDS virus before reliable testing began in April, 1985, should undergo testing.

The Red Cross officials said areas with the greatest incidence of AIDS are Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Miami.