![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
10-07-2022, 01:14 PM
Jason Evans
5 Jul 2022
......
Jonathan Evans, died of AIDS in 1993. He had contracted HIV and hepatitis C from a contaminated blood product called Factor VIII, which was given to people across the UK in the 1970s and 1980s to treat a manageable blood disorder called haemophilia.
In the UK, 3,000 to 5,000 people with haemophilia were infected with hepatitis C through Factor VIII during this time.
......
1,243 of them were also infected with HIV. Worldwide, tens of thousands of others contracted these deadly viruses after receiving this “treatment”. Many lost their lives due to long-term damage caused by hepatitis C, or ...... after the HIV introduced to their system led to AIDS.
......
Finally, in 2017, following widespread campaigning, the British government agreed to hold a public inquiry into the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service (NHS).
But why did it take so long? Why did we have to wait 30 years to get answers to our questions?
......
To make Factor VIII, manufacturers around the world – mostly US pharmaceutical behemoths but also other big companies in Europe and beyond – used vast amounts of pooled blood plasma. This involved harvesting tens of thousands of plasma samples from prisons and other high-risk donor populations and mixing them together.
In the 1970s, Factor VIII started to be marketed worldwide as a wonder drug in the treatment of haemophilia. But unbeknown to many, the manufacturers had rushed to market, skipping a crucial safety step.
Blood-based drugs like Factor VIII need to be “heat-treated” to ensure they do not carry viruses in them.
......
But heat-treating a product can be both time-consuming and financially costly. If an appropriate stabiliser is not used during the process, the heat can destroy not only harmful viruses but also the sensitive blood clotting proteins that are essential to the treatment.
So, instead of investing in research to find a stabiliser for Factor VIII, manufacturers decided to skip this step. They released their products to the market without any viral treatment step whatsoever. And by doing so, transformed their wonder drug into a ticking time bomb.
......
As the manufacturers of Factor VIII, and government and health officials who were well aware of the product’s risks, did not warn patients or ask them to get tested, countless people with haemophilia who received the treatment from the 1970s onwards didn’t learn that they have been infected with hepatitis C for years
......
in the early 1980s, a new threat entered the blood supply: HIV.
......
Factor VIII continued to be produced without any heat treatment and given to people with haemophilia across the world.
......
In early 1983, blood product decision-makers gathered in Atlanta, US to discuss AIDS. Don Francis, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), famously banged his fist on the table at the meeting and asked, “How many dead haemophiliacs do you need? How many people have to die to make it cost-efficient for you people to do something about it?”
......
Similar alarm bells were ringing in the UK, where the country’s most senior epidemiologist, Dr Spence Galbraith, wrote to the Department of Health asking for Factor VIII made in the US to be withdrawn from use.
......
Despite pleas from experts, the virus-ridden, untreated blood product continued to be given to haemophilia patients in many countries throughout 1985.
As the scale of infections became clear from 1985 onwards, states started to respond. In France, criminal prosecutions resulted in prison sentences for health officials involved. Criminal investigations also took place in Canada. But there was no investigation in the UK. And no one was held accountable.
......
The saddest part is that none of this had to happen. The entire tragedy was completely avoidable.
Manufacturers could have heat-treated Factor VIII against viruses. Health authorities and governments could have acknowledged the contamination risk and banned the product early on – long before the emergence of HIV.
......
In the UK, the authorities not only failed to acknowledge the risks of Factor VIII and protect the haemophilia community from an unsafe product, but they also maintained for decades that they had done nothing wrong and that nothing could have been done differently.
This is why the ongoing inquiry into the scandal is so valuable to people victimised by Factor VIII and their families. Even if it is 30 years too late, some authorities are finally speaking the truth and owning up to their mistakes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...ce-for-dad
5 Jul 2022
......
Jonathan Evans, died of AIDS in 1993. He had contracted HIV and hepatitis C from a contaminated blood product called Factor VIII, which was given to people across the UK in the 1970s and 1980s to treat a manageable blood disorder called haemophilia.
In the UK, 3,000 to 5,000 people with haemophilia were infected with hepatitis C through Factor VIII during this time.
......
1,243 of them were also infected with HIV. Worldwide, tens of thousands of others contracted these deadly viruses after receiving this “treatment”. Many lost their lives due to long-term damage caused by hepatitis C, or ...... after the HIV introduced to their system led to AIDS.
......
Finally, in 2017, following widespread campaigning, the British government agreed to hold a public inquiry into the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service (NHS).
But why did it take so long? Why did we have to wait 30 years to get answers to our questions?
......
To make Factor VIII, manufacturers around the world – mostly US pharmaceutical behemoths but also other big companies in Europe and beyond – used vast amounts of pooled blood plasma. This involved harvesting tens of thousands of plasma samples from prisons and other high-risk donor populations and mixing them together.
In the 1970s, Factor VIII started to be marketed worldwide as a wonder drug in the treatment of haemophilia. But unbeknown to many, the manufacturers had rushed to market, skipping a crucial safety step.
Blood-based drugs like Factor VIII need to be “heat-treated” to ensure they do not carry viruses in them.
......
But heat-treating a product can be both time-consuming and financially costly. If an appropriate stabiliser is not used during the process, the heat can destroy not only harmful viruses but also the sensitive blood clotting proteins that are essential to the treatment.
So, instead of investing in research to find a stabiliser for Factor VIII, manufacturers decided to skip this step. They released their products to the market without any viral treatment step whatsoever. And by doing so, transformed their wonder drug into a ticking time bomb.
......
As the manufacturers of Factor VIII, and government and health officials who were well aware of the product’s risks, did not warn patients or ask them to get tested, countless people with haemophilia who received the treatment from the 1970s onwards didn’t learn that they have been infected with hepatitis C for years
......
in the early 1980s, a new threat entered the blood supply: HIV.
......
Factor VIII continued to be produced without any heat treatment and given to people with haemophilia across the world.
......
In early 1983, blood product decision-makers gathered in Atlanta, US to discuss AIDS. Don Francis, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), famously banged his fist on the table at the meeting and asked, “How many dead haemophiliacs do you need? How many people have to die to make it cost-efficient for you people to do something about it?”
......
Similar alarm bells were ringing in the UK, where the country’s most senior epidemiologist, Dr Spence Galbraith, wrote to the Department of Health asking for Factor VIII made in the US to be withdrawn from use.
......
Despite pleas from experts, the virus-ridden, untreated blood product continued to be given to haemophilia patients in many countries throughout 1985.
As the scale of infections became clear from 1985 onwards, states started to respond. In France, criminal prosecutions resulted in prison sentences for health officials involved. Criminal investigations also took place in Canada. But there was no investigation in the UK. And no one was held accountable.
......
The saddest part is that none of this had to happen. The entire tragedy was completely avoidable.
Manufacturers could have heat-treated Factor VIII against viruses. Health authorities and governments could have acknowledged the contamination risk and banned the product early on – long before the emergence of HIV.
......
In the UK, the authorities not only failed to acknowledge the risks of Factor VIII and protect the haemophilia community from an unsafe product, but they also maintained for decades that they had done nothing wrong and that nothing could have been done differently.
This is why the ongoing inquiry into the scandal is so valuable to people victimised by Factor VIII and their families. Even if it is 30 years too late, some authorities are finally speaking the truth and owning up to their mistakes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/...ce-for-dad
