Time: 1 pm Eastern Time
Location: National Press Club
Contact: Corey Dubin
Committee of Ten Thousand
(805) 967-0274
CANADIAN CITIZENS ANNOUNCE INTENT TO SUE US OVER HEPATITIS C
TAINTED PRISON PLASMA
A group of Canadian nationals with hemophilia who were infected with
hepatitis C and HIV announced today in Washington D.C. their intent to
file a lawsuit against the US government, the states of Arkansas and
Louisiana, and the Food & Drug Administration. The suit will be focused
on the unlawful and willful collection and distribution of hepatitis
contaminated blood and plasma from prisons in the US. According to lead
Canadian plaintiff, Michael McCarthy, "It is time we hold those
responsible for the collection and distribution of prison blood and
plasma in the US that was known to be contaminated with hepatitis C and
was shipped to Canada and elsewhere, accountable before the bar of
justice."
According to COTT Legislative Director Dana Kuhn, also infected with
hepatitis C and HIV, "by December of 1982, it was well known that
hepatitis B was a marker for the presence of HIV, and in fact, in
January of 1983 the entire US blood industry was warned about this by
the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention at a meeting in Atlanta".
However contaminated prison blood continued to be collected and
distributed well in the mid 1980s thereby guaranteeing the transmission
of hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS to ten thousand persons with hemophilia in
the United States and thousands more in Canada, Japan, Europe, Latin
America and elsewhere.
What we have discovered over the years of investigating this issue
said Kuhn is "nothing short of shocking and represents the worst medical
scandal in US history". Even after the CDC warning, these practices
continued unabated according to COTT President, Corey Dubin, who stated
that "blood product manufacturers such as the Bayer Corporation, Baxter
Healthcare, and Alpha Therapeutics continued to purchase and use for the
manufacture of blood products prison plasma that they knew was
contaminated with HCV and HIV". This, "while prison collection centers
such as HMA and the Cummins Prison in Arkansas continued to collect and
market blood and plasma from prisoners that the CDC had identified as
one of the most risky populations in the US for the transmission of
hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS" added Dubin.
According to Canadian lead plaintiff McCarthy, "we needed these
products to treat our bleeding episodes and we expected that the
manufacturers and their regulators at the FDA were doing their job and
ensuring the highest safety margin possible". However, added McCarthy,
"we, like our brothers in America, discovered that this was not the case
when Canadian individuals with hemophilia began dying from AIDS and
hepatitis C in epidemic proportions". Those that collected, distributed
and used this risky prison plasma did so with the complete knowledge
that those who depended on these products were being subjected to two
deadly viruses, yet they did nothing to stop it. They callously and
methodically continued these practices while the death rate from AIDS
became epidemic in hemophilia populations in America and Canada. This
while the Food & Drug Administration stood by and allowed these
practices to continue well into the mid 1980s without taking any
forceful measures to stop practices that they also knew could only lead
to the physical devastation of thousands of persons with hemophilia in
the US, Canada and elsewhere.
Both Canadian lead plaintiff, Michael McCarthy and COTT Legislative
Director Dana Kuhn are demanding an official investigation by Attorney
General Janet Reno and the Justice Department. Kuhn stated that, "It is
high time the Justice Department end this callous and ongoing cover-up
and get at the truth of why thousand have to die when the US blood
industry and their FDA regulators understood clearly that these
practices could only lead to widespread harm to the users of blood
products" adding that "in France a former Prime Minister is being put on
trial for manslaughter in connection with HIV contaminated blood,
indictments are expected in Italy, yet here in the United States, where
the scandal occurred, the cover-up continues and the Justice department
and General Reno ignore the overwhelming documentary evidence, allowing
those that perpetrated this disaster to go unpunished".
