Contaminated Haemophilia Blood Products
Contaminated hemophilia blood products were a serious public health problem in the late 1970s through 1985. These products caused large numbers of haemophiliacs to become infected with HIV and hepatitis C. The companies involved included Alpha Therapeutic Corporation, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., a unit of Rhone-Poulenc S.A., Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter International and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division . Estimates range from 6,000 to 10,000 hemophiliacs in the United States becoming infected with HIV.
It is alleged that these companies recruited and paid donors from high-risk populations including homosexual men, former prisoners and injection-drug users in plasmapheresis collection facilities located in prisons (e.g. Arkansas Prison Plasma Scandal) and in cities already having large numbers of these persons to obtain blood plasma used for the production of Factor VIII and Factor IX. These companies allegedly failed to follow United States federal law mandates to exclude donors with a history of viral hepatitis. The medicine was made using pools of plasma from 10,000 or more donors, and since HIV at that time couldn't be screened out, the plasma carried a high risk of passing along the disease.
Factor VIII essentially provides the missing ingredient without which haemophiliacs' blood cannot clot. By injecting themselves with it, haemophiliacs can stop bleeding or prevent bleeding from starting; some use it as many as three times a week.
Read more about Contaminated Haemophilia Blood Products: Initial Concerns, Sales To Asia and Latin America
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