Red Cross Plans 14 Central Labs to Screen Blood

WASHINGTON â€”  The American Red Cross announced Monday that it will set up 14 new laboratories by 1994 to screen donated blood for the human immunodeficiency virus and other infectious diseases as it moves to tighten control over the testing process.

Although Red Cross President Elizabeth Hanford Dole emphasized at a news conference that the current blood supply is safe, she said the central laboratories will be able to improve testing and prevent problems.

The Red Cross estimated that there is one chance in every 150,000 pints of donated blood that HIV would be transmitted from a person who donated too soon after being infected to test positive for the virus, which causes AIDS.

Samples of every pint of donated blood will be sent to a central laboratory for testing and results will be available within 17 hours because the central labs will operate around the clock seven days a week.

They are all located within five hours transportation time of the blood centers in their region.

The new centers are the next step in a $120-million project to upgrade the collection and testing of donated blood after the Food and Drug Administration cited the centers several times for improper blood testing procedures.

The Red Cross supplies about half the blood needed in the United States with the rest from independent centers organized through the Assn. of American Blood Banks.

Last spring the Red Cross announced it would close each of its 52 blood centers sequentially to bring them up to state-of-the-art quality in testing and production of whole blood, plasma, platelets and red blood cells.

The 14 laboratories will be in Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Boston, Rochester, N.Y., Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Paul, Minn., Detroit, St. Louis, Tulsa, Okla., Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and Miami.