Although the summer may be winding down, mosquito season is still upon us. Typically, the season goes from April to November in the Bay Area. This summer, Stanford Blood Center received quite a few interesting questions from blood donors about...
By Ruthann Richter, Director of Media Relations at the Stanford School of Medicine.
One of the many controversies I covered was the decision by the Stanford Blood Center to be the first in the country to test for the virus in donated blood. The move was reviled in the blood banking industry, for it called into question the safety and reliability of the nation's blood supply. The blood center later would be vindicated, as every other bank would ultimately follow suit and routinely test for HIV. Center Director Ed Engleman, MD, says Stanford's early initiative saved some 30,000 lives.