Currently, the screening process can only diagnose HIV infection around 16 days after contagion.
The SPR's laboratories will adopt the more effective blood analysis method next year. This will further reduce the possibility that infected blood shows up clean in the screening process, which is theoretically possible if the donor is infected right before donating blood.
The SPR's Blood Service has discovered three HIV-positive blood samples this year - none of the infected blood was given to patients.
Last week a case came to light in which a man from Ostrobothnia was given blood from a donor who later was diagnosed with HIV. In this case, however, the donated blood was clean, since the donor contracted the disease after donating blood.