Blood-Vital for Life! - Conclusion of DISEASE FREE OR FRAUGHT WITH DANGER?

Even the test for hepatitis B is fallible;  many still contract it from blood.  Moreover, will people be satisfied with the announced test for hepatitis C?  The Journal of the American Medical Association (January 5 1990) showed that a year can pass before antibodies of the disease are detectable by the test.  Meanwhile, people transfused with the blood  may face ruined livers - and death.

Actually, the list of such diseases is growing.  You many have read headlines  such as "Lyme Disease From a Transfusion?  It's unlikely, but Experts Are Wary."  How safe is blood from someone testing positive for Lyme Disease?  A panel of health officials were asked if they would accept such blood."  "All of them answered no, although no one recommended discarding blood from such donors."  How should the public feel about banked blood that experts themselves would not accept? -The New York Times, July 18, 1989. 

A second reason for concern is that blood collected in one land where a certain disease abounds may be used far away, where neither the public nor the physicians are alert to the danger. With today's increase in travel, including refugees and immigrants, the risk is growing that a strange disease may be in the blood product.

Moreover, a specialist in disease warned:  "The blood supply may have to be screened to prevent transmission of several disorders that were not previously considered infectious, including leukemia, lymphoma, and dementia [or Alzheimer's disease]." - Transfusion Medicine Reviews, January 1989. 

Chilling as these risks are, others have created much wider fear.

Next time: Blood-Vital for Life! - THE AIDS PANDEMIC

From the jw.org publications