AIDS Blood Fears Grow in Orange County

Forty units of Red Cross blood suspected of being contaminated with the AIDS virus were used in transfusions by hospitals in Orange County, with some of the patients contracting the virus, a Red Cross spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The use of the blood in 1978-85 caused the Red Cross to send warning letters to hospitals throughout the county, asking them to arrange for patients who received transfusions of this blood to undergo testing for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, according to Dr. Arell Shapiro, medical director for the Red Cross’ Blood Service in Orange County.

Citing confidentiality, Shapiro would not identify the hospitals or say how many of these transfusion recipients have been infected with the AIDS virus. Because of the way the blood is broken down for transfusion, more than 40 people may have been infected, she said.

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About 85% of the blood used in transfusions in Orange County is provided by the Red Cross, said a spokesman for the Hospital Council of Southern California, a trade group.

Hospitals and blood banks in Orange County this week began disclosing the extent of AIDS-contaminated blood after Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles earlier this month admitted that more infants had been infected with AIDS through transfusions than was previously thought.

On Tuesday, Childrens Hospital of Orange County disclosed that three children who received blood transfusions there have been infected with the AIDS virus.

In Orange County, more discoveries of AIDS-tainted blood were confirmed Wednesday during a informal survey of hospitals that have large numbers of children who receive transfusions.

A UCI Medical Center spokesman said a young hemophiliac who received blood transfusions there has been infected with the virus.

At Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, a 14-year-old leukemia patient may have been infected with the virus because she had received blood from a donor who was found to have AIDS, said Dr. Donald Dicus, the hospital’s vice president for medical affairs. But the girl died before an AIDS test could be conducted on her, Dicus said.

At Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, three patients, believed to have been children, received transfusions containing blood from donors who were subsequently found to be suffering from AIDS, hospital spokeswoman Pam Bolen said.

But hospital records do not indicate whether the children were tested for AIDS or what has happened to them, Bolen added.

At Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, blood possibly contaminated with AIDS was used in transfusions, but there have been no known cases of children being infected with the virus, a hospital spokeswoman said.

In addition, recent publicity about children being infected with the AIDS virus because of blood transfusions has caused a sharp increase in people who have received transfusions taking AIDS tests at the Orange County Health Department, said Dr. Thomas J. Prendergast, the county’s epidemiologist.

Last week, 56 children and adults who have received transfusions were tested by the county, said Prendergast, who noted that usually no more than 10 transfusion recipients a week seek testing.

Three children have died in Orange County from AIDS that they contracted from blood transfusions, a spokeswoman for the county Health Department said. She added that no figures are available on the number of children who have been exposed to the AIDS virus through transfusions.

On Wednesday, about 100 concerned parents called the Childrens Hospital hot line, spokeswoman Maureen Williams said. In the three previous days that the special number had been operational, just 100 calls had been logged.

“We’re getting calls from people who have kids who’ve gotten blood transfusions from hospitals all over Southern California,” Williams said. “People seem to think we’re a clearinghouse. But we only have information about children who received transfusions at (Childrens Hospital).”

Parents who are not sure whether their children received blood products while at Childrens Hospital are encouraged to call the special number to find out, Williams said.

That number is (714) 532-8686. The line is answered Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Officials at UCI Medical Center, Fountain Valley, Western Medical and Hoag said there are no plans to follow Childrens Hospital’s lead and set up a special telephone line for parents who are concerned that their children may have received AIDS-tainted blood.

They said they did not want parents to call the medical records departments of their hospitals seeking this information because they do not have staff members to handle these inquiries.

Instead, the officials said that parents trying to find out if their children had received transfusions because they were born prematurely or had undergone operations should first contact the doctors who treated their children during these medical procedures.

Red Cross spokeswoman Shapiro said AIDS-tainted blood entered the blood supply because from 1978, when AIDS emerged in this country, to March, 1985, when testing of donated blood for the AIDS virus became routine, blood banks had to hope that such high-risk groups as homosexuals and intravenous drug uses would abstain from donating blood.