HIV

Also known as human immunodeficiency virus. A virus which causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Relevant to transfusion medicine because patients should be counseled on risk of transmission (approximately 1 in 1.5 million) prior to consenting for a blood transfusion. Nucleic acid testing of donated blood during the infectious disease screening process has reduced the "window period," in which a patient can be serologically negative and yet be viremic, to roughly 16 days.