 Dr.
Harvey G. Klein became chief of the Department of Transfusion
Medicine at the NIH Clinical Center in 1983, soon after AIDS
was first recognized. Dr. Klein was involved in early studies
to treat the mysterious disease, but he primarily headed efforts
to keep the NIH blood supply free of HIV.
He assisted Drs. Clifford Lane and Anthony Fauci in their innovative
studies involving AIDS patients with identical twins. These
studies attempted to "reconstitute" the patients'
depleted immune systems by giving them white blood cells from
their healthy twins. Dr. Klein and his colleagues collected
and transfused these white blood cells. Although the studies
were not successful—the patients' immune systems rebounded
for only a short time— they provided valuable information
about the nature of AIDS.
When it became clear in 1984 that HIV could be transmitted through
blood, Dr. Klein implemented policies and techniques to screen
NIH blood donors for HIV, building upon his earlier successful
efforts to protect transfusion recipients from viral hepatitis.
Dr. Klein notes that in 1985 there were about 4,000 cases of
transfusion-transmitted HIV in the United States, this figure
fell to about 20 in the early 90s.
Dr. Klein continues to serve as chief of the Department of Transfusion
Medicine. |
