On Jun. 22, 1983, the American Association of Blood Banks, the Council of Community Blood Centers, and the American Red Cross issued a second joint statement, stating that “it appears at this time that the risk of possible transfusion-associated AIDS is on the order of one case per million patients transfused. There is a risk that widespread attempts to direct donations, while not increasing the safety of transfusions, will seriously disrupt the nation’s blood donor system.”

During 1982-1985, research on AIDS led to isolation of the virus and the development of a screening test. Concurrently, research efforts related to viral inactivation of the antihemophilic factor (AHF) concentrate, underway since the 1970s, were accelerated and completed.

In the early 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) surveillance program identified AIDS patients and characterized the disease swiftly and thoroughly. Dr. Robert Gallo at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) isolated and characterized HIV in less than two years. Meanwhile, laboratories of the plasma fractionation industry were developing viral inactivation methods for AHF concentrate. The pace of virus inactivation research in the 1970s had been slow, but accelerated in the 1980s in response to hepatitis and was complete by 1984.