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Tainted Blood Supply Spreads HIV in Poor Nations Fri Feb 22, 5:25 PM ET By Alan Mozes NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A combined fear of disease and lawsuits have led most wealthy developed nations to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy regarding HIV contamination of the blood supply, researchers have found. But 10% of all new HIV infections in developing countries, they say, are now due to transfusions of tainted blood. Meanwhile, governments of these developing nations are struggling to develop and enforce measures to make their blood supplies safer. "In the developed countries I think the blood supply situation ...

Compensation for Hep C victims HEALTH minister Susan Deacon will signal a major U-turn in policy today by announcing that Scottish hepatitis C victims are to receive compensation after all. The Scotsman can reveal that Ms Deacon is to instruct NHS lawyers to begin negotiations to settle legal action taken by patients who contracted the virus through routine operations, in line with a landmark legal ruling in England. But the deal will only include those sufferers who were infected after the Consumer Protection Act came into force in March 1988, a tiny fraction of those affected. The move, which follows ...

By Louella Houldcroft OWEN'S OUTRAGE AT FAILURE OVER BLOOD DAVID Owen, co-founder of the SDP and once one of Britain's most charismatic and passionate leaders, has turned his back on the world of politics. The former Foreign Secretary and trained medic says that nowadays he goes out of his way to avoid the political sphere, preferring instead to spend time with his family and concentrate on his London business. But despite his resolution to "not get involved", Lord Owen says there is still one piece of unfinished business that continues to anger him - Britain's "failure" to become self-sufficient in ...

Friday, July 20, 2001 Move to examine international drug firms By Joe Humphreys HAEMOPHILIA TRIBUNAL: The Lindsay tribunal will be urged today to broaden the scope of its inquiry to examine the role of international pharmaceutical companies in the infection of more than 250 Irish haemophiliacs with HIV and/or hepatitis C. The Irish Haemophilia Society is due to make a formal submission demanding an examination of the actions of such firms as Cutter and Armour Pharmaceuticals, a part of Revlon Inc, which exported infected products to the Republic. The chairwoman, Judge Alison Lindsay, will be asked to seek access to ...

FAMILY’S FURY OVER MISSING ORGAN SCANDAL STEPHEN LONGSTAFF: Died after being given infected blood products A HOSPITAL removed the the brain of a tragic Aids victim and kept it in a secret stash of body parts, it was revealed today. The organ was taken from Hartlepool haemophiliac Stephen Longstaff for research purposes without his family’s permission, NHS chiefs admitted. Relatives of the one-time Winterbottom Avenue resident today hit out at health workers who allowed him to be buried without his brain. His shocked sister-in-law Carol Grayson said: “Organs are gifts and should be treated as such. They are not something ...

'Illegal' condoms given to HIV patients -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Eithne Donnellan The Irish Haemophilia Society had to distribute condoms in a hospital car-park in the 1980s to haemophiliacs who had just been given HIV positive test results, the tribunal was told yesterday. Its chairman, Mr Brian O'Mahony, said the condoms, which could not be given out by doctors, were distributed by him from the boot of his car in the car-park of St James's Hospital, Dublin, where most haemophiliacs would have received news of their HIV status. The measure, though illegal, meant that by 1991 no Irish haemophiliac had transmitted the ...

Ex-FBI man seeks Whitewater papers Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 5/23/01 Former President Clinton´s attorney and Arkansas State Police violated the law in refusing to make public 10 boxes of documents collected during the Whitewater investigation, a former FBI supervisor says. Agent Ivian C. Smith, who headed the FBI´s Little Rock, Ark., field office during the height of the Whitewater probe, said in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit he was denied access to the never-released documents in what he called an effort to keep them from becoming public. Mr. Smith, who retired in 1998, said the documents include ...

Tainted blood manufacturer courted Castro 10th May, 1983 Mr. C. Pupo Tellez Head Economic Office Embassy of Cuba 388 Main Street Ottawa Dear Mr. Pupo: re:Joint Venture Possibilities in Cuba With reference to our meeting on April, 12, 1983, I have now had an opportunity of discussing the above-mentioned subject with Connaught's Management. I am pleased to inform you it has been decided that we would like to investigate Joint Venture possibilities in Cuba. As I have mentioned during our discussions, the best starting point for both the Cuban Government and ourselves appears to be in the area of human ...

CONNAUGHT November 12, 1982 Mr.T. Halasz Vice President Continental Pharma 1675 Sherbrooke St. W. Suite 301 Montreal, Quebec Dear Tom, Following the October 20, 1982 delivery of Source Plasma from Health Management Associates, the following irregularities were reported to us: 1. Receiving time was after working hours (it would be more convenient to receive shipment during working hours). 2. Donor lists do not bear Centre's name. 3. Most of donor lists are not signed for HbsAg results. 4. Donor lists not consistent in number of donors on each page. 5. Cartons not numbered and do not correspond with donor lists ...

Bureau of Biologics Drugs Directorate Tunney's Pasture Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L2 October 7, 1983 CONFIDENTIAL Ms. Donna K. Mayo Group Vice-President Continental Pharma Division of Cryosan Ltd. 1625 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Quebec Dear Ms. Mayo: Your letter of September 19, 1983, to Dr. Tabbara of Connaught Laboratories Limited (CLL), maintains that I have approved and complimented your Company's handling of the recent incident concerning the sale of plasma by Continental Pharma to CLL. Subsequently it was discovered that the plasma was obtained contrary to Canadian regulations. Because of the inaccuracy of that assurance, I have to correct any erroneous ...

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration Bethesda MD 20205 September 23, 1983 Mr.J.C.W. Weber Connaught Laboratories, Limited 1755 Steeles Avenue, West Willowdale, Ontario CANADA M2R 3T4 In reply refer to: HFN-815 IC83-0025 Dear Mr.Weber: We acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 23, 1983, concerning your use of four units of plasma received from the ADC Plasma Center in Arkansas, and which were included in plasma pools used to manufacture certain fractionated products. As discussed with you by phone on August 19th, these four units tested HbsAg non-reactive, but were collected from donors who had previously ...

No one held 'Accountable'By MARK KENNEDY Southam Newspapers OTTAWA - The RCMP will not lay charges against government bureaucrats who destroyed crucial documents during the tainted-blood tragedy that left thousands of Canadians contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C. The Mounties revealed Monday that after a "comprehensive" four-year probe, they could not determine if the officials were motivated by "any criminal intent"when they ordered the destruction of taped and verbatim transcripts from the 1982-89 meetings of the Canadian Blood Committee (CBC), a federal-provincial body that oversaw the blood system. Victims reacted with sadness to Monday's announcement. "It's taken the wind ...

February 26, 2001 RCMP won't lay charges in destruction of blood committee records By DENNIS BUECKERT-- The Canadian Press OTTAWA (CP) -- The RCMP will not lay charges in the 1989 destruction of the records of the Canadian Blood Committee, which ran the blood system during the during the tainted blood scandal. The Mounties confirmed Monday that audio recordings and transcripts of the now-defunct federal-provincial government committee's meetings from 1982 to 1989 were destroyed, but they couldn't determine if it was done with criminal intent. The official minutes of the meetings do survive, but these are summaries of discussions, and ...

CP Story U.S. secret service investigating Clinton death threat made on Ont. talk show ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (CP) - The United States Secret Service was investigating Friday an alleged death threat against former U.S. president Bill Clinton made during a local call-in radio show. A female caller to John Michael's morning radio show on Thursday said when the ex-president arrives in Hamilton in May for a fundraiser he should be killed. "She said 'We should do the United States a favor and kill him when he gets to Hamilton,"' Michael said Friday. The host, who said he believes the comment ...

CP Story U.S. secret service investigating Clinton death threat made on Ont. talk show ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (CP) - The United States Secret Service was investigating Friday an alleged death threat against former U.S. president Bill Clinton made during a local call-in radio show. A female caller to John Michael's morning radio show on Thursday said when the ex-president arrives in Hamilton in May for a fundraiser he should be killed. "She said 'We should do the United States a favor and kill him when he gets to Hamilton,"' Michael said Friday. The host, who said he believes the comment ...

Saturday, February 24, 2001 'Regret' at lag in telling mother of sons' illness By Joe Humphreys The state's former leading treater of haemophiliacs apologised yesterday for allowing five years to elapse before informing a mother that her three sons were infected with hepatitis C. Prof Ian Temperley said he regretted it "very bitterly" and accepted responsibility on behalf of the medical team at the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, of which he was director. The mother, who gave evidence to the tribunal last year under the pseudonym Felicity, was not told of the infections until October 1995, even though positive ...

Friday, February 23, 2001 Switch to pasteurised was possibly 'illegal' By Joe Humphreys Children with haemophilia were switched on to a pasteurised blood product in the late 1980s in a possibly "illegal" fashion, the tribunal heard yesterday. Prof Ian Temperley, former medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, said the move followed concern over the continued use of a more widely available Factor 8 product manufactured under conventional heat-treatment conditions. In November 1987 the National Drugs Advisory Board gave permission to the drugs company Cutter to have its Koate HS pasteurised product used on not more than six ...

February 22, 2001 Judge withholds approval of Red Cross tainted blood settlement OTTAWA (CP) -- An Ontario judge has withheld approval of a $79-million Red Cross-led compensation offer for victims of tainted blood, saying more information is needed to determine if the offer is fair. Justice Warren Winkler says he needs to know more about the legal risks faced by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors who have joined the Red Cross proposal. Winkler said in his ruling he's not satisfied that those parties have put enough money into the package to be let off the hook for further ...

Wednesday, February 21, 2001 Patients told of HIV test results on stairs landing By Joe Humphreys Patients at the State's main treatment centre for haemophiliacs were informed of test results for HIV on a public stairwell landing normally used for cigarette smoking, the Lindsay tribunal heard yesterday. Prof Ian Temperley, medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, said the situation was very unsatisfactory and stemmed from the totally inadequate facilities at St James's Hospital, where the centre was. Apart from the hospital's general outpatient section, he said, only one small room was available for the treatment of haemophiliacs. There ...

Risk of `mad cow' alarms hemophiliacs Seek more information on blood products Tim Harper OTTAWA BUREAU OTTAWA - Hemophiliacs - who believe they may be at unnecessary risk from imported blood products - have added their voices to the clamour for more openness on what's being done to keep Canada free of the human form of mad cow disease. Although fewer than 1,000 hemophiliacs using a heat-treated plasma product known as Factor 11 could be at risk, Hemophilia Ontario yesterday demanded safety assurances from the Canadian Blood Services over the product imported from the United Kingdom and France. They called ...