Japan's Red Cross says some blood may be HIV-tainted

Officials with the Japanese Red Cross Society announced Wednesday that some blood from HIV-positive donors may have been used in transfusions since June, the Daily Yomiuri reports. The Red Cross reports that blood from four HIV-positive donors was identified and destroyed, but HIV-tainted blood from four others was distributed. It says blood from two of those donors had been used in transfusions. The tainted blood slipped through the cracks at the agency after a database upgrade left the Red Cross unable to access data on donors deemed at risk for HIV-infection. Testing of the blood products also did not identify that they were tainted with HIV because the donors gave blood during the short period immediately following infection when HIV levels are too low to detect.