The New England journal of medicine
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N. Engl. J. Med.
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In the United States, transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by blood transfusion occurs almost exclusively when a recently infected blood donor is infectious but before antibodies to HIV become detectable (during the "window period"). We estimated the risk of HIV transmission caused by transfusion on the basis of the window period associated with the use of current, sensitive enzyme immunosorbent assays and recent data on HIV incidence among blood donors. ⋯ The estimated risk of transmitting HIV by the transfusion of screened blood is very small and nearly half that estimated previously, primarily because the sensitivity of enzyme immunosorbent assays has been improved.