Kaplan EH; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1998; 12: 984 (abstract no. 484/44244).
Yale School of Management, New Haven, CT 06520-8200, USA.
BACKGROUND: In 1996, it was revealed that blood donations from Ethiopian immigrants to Israel were routinely discarded, without informing the donors, for fear that such donations would contaminate Israel's blood supply with HIV infection. Following the revelation of this policy, 10,000 of Israel's 60,000 Ethiopian immigrants demonstrated in protest, 70 persons were injured, and Israel was subjected to considerable criticism. This study estimates the number of infectious donations prevented by Israel's Ethiopian blood ban, and conducts an implicit cost-benefit analysis of this blood exclusion decision. METHODS: The number of infectious donations averted is estimated as the product of the number of attempted antibody negative donations by Ethiopian immigrants, and the false negative screening rate. The false negative rate is estimated as the product of HIV incidence among would be Ethiopian donors, and the mean duration of the window period from HIV infection until the development of HIV antibody. Total costs of $1.5 million (reflecting medical and non-medical costs of HIV) are charged for each infectious donation. Together these assumptions serve to overstate the effectiveness of the Ethiopian blood ban. RESULTS: At most one infectious donation every ten years was prevented by the Ethiopian blood ban. For the ban to prove cost-beneficial, the social costs imposed on Israeli society from this ban would have to be less than $150,000 annually, or only $2.50 per Ethiopian Immigrant per year. CONCLUSIONS: The social costs Israel suffered on account of the Ethiopian blood ban were considerable while the public health benefits Israel achieved were slim. For example, the medical costs alone associated with the 70 injuries reported above might compete with the benefits of preventing one infectious donation every 10 years. Contrasting the social costs of this blood ban against the meager public health benefits derived, Israeli society may not have been well served by excluding Ethiopian donors.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Blood Donors
- Cost-Benefit Analysis
- Emigration and Immigration
- Ethiopia
- HIV Antibodies
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Incidence
- Israel
- Mass Screening
- blood
- economics
Other ID:
UI: 102231877
From Meeting Abstracts