U.S. Officials Assess AIDS-Transplant Tests

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control visited a Virginia transplant center Tuesday to assess the tracking of patients who received tissue from an AIDS-infected donor.

AIDS tests on the donor, performed after he was killed in a robbery, were negative, apparently because he contracted the virus shortly before his death. Three people who received his organs were subsequently discovered to have died of AIDS. Tests of at least three others who received tissue grafts from the donor had positive results.

A total of 52 tissue samples and four organs from the man were distributed.