Rate of infection from HIV-infected transfusions

A systematic review of the risk of infection following transfusion of contaminated blood found that estimates ranged from 88 to 100% (pooled estimate 92%).¹

Nonetheless, not all recipients of HIV-infected blood seroconvert. A 1989 study of 220 recipients of blood from HIV-positive donors found that 85 were HIV-negative. Those who seroconverted were more likely to have received large quantities of blood and/or to have received blood from a donor who subsequently developed AIDS less than two and a half years after giving blood.

Those who progressed to AIDS within seven years of the transfusion were more likely to have received large quantities of blood when transfused, and to have been more severely ill (measured by length of stay in hospital). After seven years, 49% of the recipients of infected blood were estimated to have progressed to AIDS. Those who had received blood from donors who developed AIDS within two and a half years of giving blood were more likely to have developed AIDS within four years than those who did not.²