Japan - Patient Receives HIV-Tainted Blood

Japan - Patient Receives HIV-Tainted Blood

The patient infected with HIV from a blood donation that slipped through the screening system used by Japan's Red Cross was the only person to receive the infected blood, Japanese Health Ministry spokesperson Kazunari Tanaka said Monday. The infected donor's blood was in three samples. One of them was used in the transfusion, and the other two were not used, meaning that no further infections can result from the donation, he said.

The HIV transmission was detected after the virus was discovered in a man who donated blood Nov. 16. Checks showed that the same donor, a man in his 20's, had given contaminated blood in May, but it had gone undetected and had been used in a transfusion. The earlier blood donation occurred during a very short time after infection when HIV is very difficult to detect, said Tanaka.

The case is Japan's first such infection through a blood transfusion and its second blood safety error since the nation's Red Cross started a new screening system in 1999, said Tanaka. In July, the Red Cross said about 6,400 blood products potentially tainted with diseases - HIV, hepatitis or syphilis - had been shipped to patients across the country. At that time, the organization advised recent transfusion recipients to seek follow-up testing.

Associated Press (12.29.03)::Kozo Mizoguchi

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Most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before manifesting AIDS. During that period, infected people will have few, if any, symptoms yet they can transmit the virus.
The percentage of women with AIDS has increased steadily, and the percentage of people infected heterosexually has also increased, surpassing the percentage infected through injecting drug use.
During 2001, there were 35575 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates now that 40,000 new cases of HIV transmission occur every year.
Of the people infected with the virus of AIDS in the USA in the year 2001, 42% were whites, 37% blacks, 20% Hispanics and <1% Asians and Pacific Islanders and <1% American Indians and Alaska Natives.
During the 1990s, the HIV epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases in blacks and Hispanics and in women.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). The presence of HIV in the body can be detected in several ways. The most common is the HIV-ELISA Antibodies test.

The HIV-ELISA looks for the body response to the virus manifested by the presence in your blood of Antibodies to HIV proteins. Antibodies are special proteins that our Immune System produce in response to the presence of HIV.

The test performed on your sample actually consists of two tests: a Screening test and a Confirmatory test. The screening test procedure is called an ELISA—Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay or an EIA (Enzyme Immunosorbent Assay). The confirmatory test is used in the event your HIV-ELISA is positive and/or equivocal and is the procedure used is the Western Blot Assay (WB)

The screening and confirmatory tests are usually done using small samples of blood. If a sample of blood tests positive repeatedly in the screening test, it will be confirmed through the Western Blot test. People will be informed that they are infected with HIV only after both the screening and confirmatory tests have shown a positive (reactive) result.

Positive HIV antibody tests results are over 99% accurate when confirmed. Negative HIV antibody tests are over 99% accurate if it has been at least six months after a contact with a potentially HIV-infected partner. False negatives or false positives occur rarely.

Antibodies to HIV can be detected in the blood, in the urine or in the saliva. People produce antibodies with different speeds and therefore the time interval between infection and the development of antibodies to HIV can go from four weeks to six months from the exposure date or SDC ( Suspected Date of Contact). The appearance of antibodies in a blood or urine sample of a person which was known to be negative to HIV is called Seroconversion.

The HIV Elisa results are usually available in one or two business days.

THE WINDOW PERIOD

The time period between a person’s contact with the virus (infection) and when HIV antibodies become detectable in blood or other fluids is called the "window period". Most people will develop antibodies detectable within 4-6 weeks after infection with HIV. Some people may take longer; but nearly all (99%) will have antibodies by 6 months following infection. Therefore, the test may not be accurate if a person gets tested too soon after a potential exposure. People waiting six months from the time of the exposure before testing will have a 99% accurate test result. Until now there have been no studies showing antibodies present in people with longer than six months exposure to HIV.

STDWeB provides only health screening services. Tests are provided only for personal information and/or risk identification purposes. STDWeB does not diagnose or treat medical conditions. STDWeB screenings do not take the place of a physician care. Transactions with STDWeB are confidential and will not be shared with third parties. Tests with "positive" or "indeterminate" result may require confirmatory testing and may involve additional charges.