Government to Provide AIDS Screening Tests to Prevent Contamination of Blood Bank Supplies

WASHINGTON —  The government Wednesday pledged money and manpower to make sure that persons worried they may have AIDS can get blood screening tests to check for the disease.

Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret M. Heckler said that the effort was designed to prevent the nation’s blood supply from being contaminated by a virus believed to cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

High-risk individuals, primarily male homosexuals, have virtually stopped giving blood because of the possibility they may pass on the disease, health officials said. But officials said they feared that the test may persuade them to return to the blood banks.

High-risk individuals will be urged to have their tests at private doctors, community health centers and public health clinics, “and for reasons of both confidentiality and familiarity, the department expects that they will be willing to use these alternative test centers,” Heckler said.