Desperately Sad Story

[mikey4444]

The three brothers killed in a blood scandal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39560007

The lady at the end of this link says...."How do we know that it won't happen again ? "

[murraymints]

very sad...

[Old_Geezer]

It is sad but this is down to problems in the 1970s and 1980s. Accidents should never happen but they do and it's probably impossible to reduce risk to zero. So the one thing we can be sure of is that accidents and tragedies will happen again. Best one can do is try to make the right decisions as we progress. I trust the NHS have better checks in place now, at least for those particular infections.

[mikey4444]

What I found really sad about this case, was where the chaps boys were separated and sent to different care homes. The boys had lost their Dad and 2 of their Uncles, and yet the Social Services made this awful situation much worse.

[wolf63]

I'm not awake yet so didn't watch the video. There has been many people poisoned by tainted blood. If the authorities had been honest with those affected it would have been easier for them to cope with.

I will read and watch it later - if I find my brain.

[mikey4444]

Wolfie....it should be just behind your nose....mine is !

[ummmm]

To give blood you can just tell lies on the form.

[mikey4444]

The issue is that these blood products were not tested, of, if they were, were not tested properly. An Inquiry would show exactly what happened. From the link :::

"Some 4,670 of them were later diagnosed with hepatitis C, while around 1,200 also contracted HIV.

Many did not live long enough to be treated with modern drugs."

That would seem to me to a huge scandal.

[mushroom25]

it is sad, but what could the authorities have been expected to do in the 1970s and early 1980s? HIV was practically unknown at that time (only first clinically identified in 1981, and only understood as a viral infection from 1983), never mind that the incubation period could run to decades - how could they test for it? they barely knew what it was, never mind how it behaved....

[sandyRoe]

Blood donors in the UK are motivated by altruism. In the USA, where many of the contaminated blood products originated, many donors sell their blood. It's not surprising that infections were passed on with their 'gift of life'.

[mikey4444]

Hepatitus was well know back then....most of these men were infected by Hep C, not HIV-Aids. The Authorities didn't test properly, and they should have done.

[mikey4444]

Sandy...these infections can only be passed on, if the blood isn't tested properly.

[Peter Pedant]

I am not sure why this is a scandal now

Haemophilia was treated by pooled plasma and there wasnt enough so Armor Factor VIII was bought in. It was known at the time that the blood product was from prisoners drug addicts and so on

The history is here
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp038194#t=article

Gallo and Montagnier discovered HIV in 1981 but by then Armor Factor 8 had been given for four years. Interesting times - Gallo had stolen Monatagnier's virus samples and passed them off as his own.
Only virus ( I discovered it first) dispute to be solved by .... international treaty. ( France and US agreed not to litigate over it)

They of course were investigating GRID ( gay related immune deficiency), and the more it was gay related the less they could understand how it was that Haemophiliacs got it ( rather than some other disease)

The first testing for HIV was 1985 - seven years after the factor VIII change.

Hep C was in the mixed bag in the seventies ( hey its lucky you have me that worked in a lab then huh ?). Hep A was infectious (vaccine then was other mens serum hahaha good one huh ? called passive immunity) - Hep B serum hepatitis - which also had an odd sexual element that no one understood.
The Hep B outbreak in Ediburgh - subject of 'The Houseman's Tale' was about an epidemic on a dialysis unit and cast as bad blood practices during dialysis. The alternative was that they were all screwing each other....
and there was a mixed bag called Non A Non B (NANB) Hepatitis
in which Hep C lurked. Serum testing lagged and its importance was not known for another ten years. The bag also contained D along with E and F I think. - new virus give it a new letter.

and that is the background
there was no scandal
Factor 8 was bought in even tho there could unknown viruses lurking - and a decision was made that we ( they ) needed factor 8 more than sitting around worrying about undescribed boogy-men and not treating anyone
Bad call

Tell you one thing.... I was investigated as an index case of TB on a mixed Haemophilia and leukaemia ward ( haem ward geddit) -
and everyone said ( 1981) the oddest thing is that the leukaemic whom we know are immunosuppressed havent got it and all the haemophiliacs ( who were then looked on as normal) have !

I wasnt the index case by the way -

I didnt do pathology after around 1982
Oh Slaney did - perhaps she wants to contribute

[jakep]

Thank you Peter