Blood banks give HTLV-III test positive appraisal at five months.

The nation's blood supply is measurably safer than it was five months ago—at least as far as the risk of transmitting the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is concerned. This is the conclusion from experience to date with the tests for human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) antibody being used by blood banks to screen out potentially AIDS-infected blood. Data from experience with the tests were reported at a meeting held in Bethesda, Md, at the National Institutes of Health in association with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rockville, Md, and the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta. "The general impression is that, after the first five months, these tests are doing an extremely good job of screening potentially AIDS-infectious blood units out of the blood supply," said Harry M. Meyer, Jr, MD, director of the Center for Drugs and Biologics at the FDA. The HTLV-III or lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV)