5 Assessment According to current knowledge, HIV-1 has been transmitted via blood and blood products in Germany since 1979. With the introduction of antibody testing of blood and plasma donations in 1985, transmission of infections via blood, blood components and plasma products has been dramatically reduced. The residual risk of transmission of HIV with red cell, granulocyte and platelet concentrates, which are not currently subject to virus inactivation/removal procedures, is already very low at approximately 1 per 1.5 million donations. In the case of fresh-frozen plasma, which is subject to quarantine rules, there have been no known cases of transmission of HIV. Plasma products that have correctly undergone virus inactivation/ removal procedures during manufacture currently pose no residual risk of HIV transmission. The introduction of NAT for HIV-1 genome will bring about a further reduction in the residual risks for cellular blood components. The window period for antibody formation of approximately 21–45 days will be reduced as a result to approximately 11 days, as even incipient HIV infection is detectable with NAT. The spread of HIV amongst the German population in around 1978 is an example of how rapidly an established level of safety can collapse even in the blood services sector. The measures introduced for donor selection, inactivation of plasma products and selective use of blood and blood components should prevent a repeat of transmission of an enveloped virus on such a scale in the future. ...