MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - Five HIV cases caused by infected donor blood are registered in Russia annually, the director of the AIDS Prevention and Fight Center said Thursday.
Vadim Pokrovsky said the number of HIV-positive donors was growing in Russia.
"Contagion can be prevented through reducing the number of blood transfusions. In some cases, it is not necessary," Pokrovsky said. He confirmed that HIV could not be passed on through albumin, a medication derived from blood plasma.
It was reported earlier that HIV had been discovered in the blood of a permanent donor in Voronezh. The 35-year-old woman was diagnosed with HIV in May.
Russia's chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko said that, theoretically, 208 people could have been infected with HIV from donated blood, but 72 of them has already tested negative for the disease.
