Worries About Infectious Cancer

Abstract

The recent discovery that the human T-cell lymphoma leukemia virus (HTLV) may be the agent of transmission of T-cell lymphoid malignancies raises ethical questions for blood transfusion services. The effort to avoid use of contaminated blood is dependent to a large extent on the willingness and ability of donors to give truthful information about their backgrounds that may reveal them to be at high risk of previous exposure to the virus. Complicating the issue is the probability that the mapping of the geographic and ethnic distribution of HTLV will lead to identification of certain populations as the most common carriers. (KIE abstract)