FDA Issues New Tissue, Cell Screening Rule

Virtually all donated tissues and cells including sperm and stem cells -- or their donors -- must be screened for diseases from AIDS to SARS under a new FDA rule released on Thursday. Doctors, politicians and patient groups have been clamoring for the new rule, five years in the making. The pressure increased in recent years with the publicized deaths of patients who received infected transplants of seemingly innocuous tissue such as knee tendons and heart valves.

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