GROUP SAYS AIDS TRANSFUSION FEARS EXAGGERATED
A top official of a major
association of blood banks said Americans' fears of getting 
AIDS from tainted blood transfusions were greatly exaggerated.
    "The (blood banking) system is strong," Edwin Steane,
president of the American Association of Blood Banks, said at a
news briefing here. "The current fears about AIDS transmission
are largely unfounded."
    Steane made his remarks after the group found in a public
opinion poll that 55 pct of Americans believed it likely that
one could contract AIDS from a tainted blood transfusion.
    The poll, conducted in December, was made public today.
    A year earlier, in a similar survey, 53 pct of Americans
said it was likely that one could contract AIDS from a blood
transfusion, the group reported.
    Steane said the practice of testing donated blood for the
presence of AIDS antibodies, begun in mid-1985, had virtually
eliminated AIDS-infected blood from the U.S. supply system.
    He said the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had
reported only two cases of tainted blood being transfused since
the testing program began.
 Reuter
