Santa Ana : Dannemeyer Gives Blood in AIDS Reassurance

U.S. Senate hopeful Rep. William E. Dannemeyer took his campaign to the American Red Cross donation center in Santa Ana Friday. But this campaign appearance, he said, was to reassure a fearful public that there is no risk of getting AIDS by donating blood.

To prove the point, the Republican from Fullerton, who is Congress’ most outspoken member on the subject of AIDS, rolled up his sleeves, reclined on a folding table and stuck out his left forearm for Red Cross nurse Linda Marshal.

“How long will it take to get the needle out?” Dannemeyer asked, as blood began to trickle through a plastic tube into a sterile plastic pouch beside the table.

“The average time is seven or eight minutes,” Marshal answered in a low, soothing voice. She then moved away, leaving the 56-year-old congressman to contemplate a poster of singing star Julio Iglesias on the ceiling above while television cameras and reporters hovered nearby.

“I’m doing this to emphasize that you can’t get AIDS by donating blood,” Dannemeyer said, added that he was alarmed by a recent poll showing that 34% of Americans believe it is one possible way to contract the deadly disease.

Regional American Red Cross officials and national blood bank operators have blamed the current panic over acquired immune deficiency syndrome for a critical shortage of blood supplies during the holiday season. Although some have contracted AIDS through transfusions, blood bank officials have mounted a campaign to show that there is no such risk when giving blood.

“Now, there still may be a small chance of getting AIDS from a blood transfusion,” Dannemeyer insisted.

In August, Dannemeyer announced that he had asked then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler to issue strict guidelines prohibiting all male homosexuals from donating blood, which he contended was a serious threat to the safety of the nation’s blood supplies, despite a test to screen donations for evidence of the AIDS virus.

In September, new guidelines were issued. But Red Cross officials said they had been screening all male homosexuals for more than a year before Dannemeyer raised the concern.

At a press conference later Friday, Dr. Carroll L. Spurling, director of the regional Red Cross blood program in Los Angeles and Orange counties, also disputed Dannemeyer’s statement that screening tests for AIDS fail to detect the virus antibodies in about 4% of those tested.

“Since we began using the screening test last March, we feel the danger of getting AIDS from (transfusion) has been markedly reduced, probably eliminated,” Spurling said.

Asked if he felt his widely publicized charges about AIDS and homosexuals had contributed to the public panic and the nationwide blood shortage, Dannemeyer replied: “Not at all. I think I’ve helped contribute to the solution of this problem.”

Asked if his high profile on the AIDS issue has won him contributors and campaign workers for his fledgling bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, the four-term congressman said: “Oh, a few people call up to say they agree and want to help. But I can’t say the contributions have come rolling in.”