2 Tissue Recipients Test Positive for AIDS : Health: Three people have died from transplants from Virginia man and a fourth has HIV. Fifty others who got implants are being sought.

An organ transplant company reported Saturday that two people who received tissue from an AIDS-infected man have preliminarily tested positive for the deadly virus.

A spokesman for LifeNet Transplantation Services, the agency that distributed the man’s tissue and organs, said the two had received particularly risky “fresh-frozen” tissue grafts, which were not treated with alcohol for fear that the chemical might kill the cells. A third recipient has been identified and will be tested, he said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that federal health investigators are tracking 50 or more transplant patients who received organ or tissue donations from a man who unknowingly carried the AIDS virus. Three people who received heart and kidney transplants from the infected Virginia man died of AIDS.

Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration believe most of the grafts were treated with either alcohol or radiation and are not believed to be infectious. However, eight grafts--bone, soft tissues and a pancreas--may be infectious, investigators say.

Meanwhile, the mother of William (Pete) Norwood said her worst fears were confirmed when she learned that the organs of her dead son were responsible for the spread of the disease.

Norwood, a service station attendant, was shot to death by a robber in October, 1985. The robber took $179.78 from the cash register and shot Norwood in the head.

His family’s shocked reaction to the news was reported in Saturday’s edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a report from Richmond, Va.

The donor’s mother, who asked that her name be withheld, said she learned of his involvement Friday night in a telephone call from a doctor with LifeNet.

“Oh, my God, no!” Norwood’s mother cried out.

“He tried to do something for other people and look how it turned out,” she was quoted as saying.

Two blood tests conducted at the time of Norwood’s death were negative for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS. The tests apparently were done during a “window” of time when the man was infected but his body was not producing the antibodies that indicate infection.

LifeNet became aware of the problem on April 26, when the Colorado Department of Health reported that an elderly Denver woman who had received a hip joint from the donor had tested positive for the virus.

The Journal-Constitution reported that a Medical College of Virginia patient, who received the infected donor’s heart, died in 1986, and the two recipients of the donor’s kidneys died in 1988 and 1990.

None of these cases were brought to the attention of the transplant network until early May, the newspaper quoted a LifeNet executive as saying.

Health officials are working to track down as many as 58 people in 16 states who may have received the tissue through 30 hospitals.

All institutions that received grafts have been notified, officials said. LifeNet executives refused to identify the hospitals, except to confirm that doctors from the Medical College of Virginia removed the donor’s organs.

In addition to tracing the recipients of the organs, officials planned to study the incident to prevent future cases, FDA spokesman Brad Stone said.

“We’d like to use this experience to get some valuable knowledge on how to deal with these kinds of situations more effectively,” Stone said. “We’d also like to get a better idea of what further steps might be taken to further maximize the safety of organ and tissue transplants.”