The follow up message to that in this eDrugs thread:
Reprinted under the fair use doctrine of international copyright law:
Austria investigates allegations of tainted-blood exports
Lancet 2000; 356: 919 - 922 (9 September)
The trail of blood plasma infected with HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis
exported from
South Africa to European companies is being investigated by the police and
health
authorities in Austria, Switzerland, and the UK. There are apprehensions
that
unscrupulous brokers relabelled these contaminated products before selling
them
off to China and India, while earning millions of dollars, and endangering
many
lives.
A confidential investigation by Wilbert Bannenberg of the South African
Drug Action
Programme for the country's Department of Health concluded in May this year
that
exports of infected serum and blood plasma, although labelled "unfit for
human
use", had taken place during 1990-2000.
Although the London Sunday Times recently attributed Bannenberg's report to
WHO, the UN agency has denied that it is involved. Bannenberg's report
conceded that substantial exports were being made to plasma brokers
allegedly
implicated in illegal practices in Europe and that current controls on the
plasma
trade in South Africa were inadequate. Although the report found that no
South
African laws seemed to have been violated, the possibility of such
violations in
other countries was not ruled out.
South Africa has been exporting plasma for many years. From 1983-86, human
plasma was falsely labelled "animal plasma" and illegally exported to
Europe.
This illegal practice resulted in a court case and one conviction in
Belgium. In 1996,
Austrian police seized 4000 L of infected blood from a Linz-based company,
Albovina.
The Sunday Times report said that Austrian officials have investigated two
British
companies, based in Guernsey and Berkshire. Police are still trying to find
out
where the companies' plasma products were used. Johann Kurz, head of unit
for
biologicals with the federal Ministry of Social Security & Generation in
Vienna,
Austria, told The Lancet, "We suspect that in 1996 and earlier, some
products
coming from South Africa were transferred to India, China, and Hong Kong,
among
other countries". The products were albumin and intravenous
immunoglobulins.
Nevertheless, Luc Noel, Coordinator of Blood Safety with the WHO in Geneva,
Switzerland, emphasised that: "There should not be any confusion of the
transfusion services in South Africa--which are now world class--with these
criminal
activities". While it is important that this trafficking is exposed, the
public can be
confident in their blood services, Noel added.
Sanjay Kumar
Kirsten Myhr, MScPharm, MPH
Bygdøy alle 58B
0265 Oslo, Norway
Tel.: +47 22 56 05 85, fax: +47 22 24 90 17
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