"France's Bloody Scandal"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"France's Bloody Scandal"

Chicago Tribune (12/15/92), P. 2-1
Waxman, Sharon

Abstract: About 5,000 French people contracted HIV through contaminated blood transfusions in the 1980s, and approximately 1,500 French hemophiliacs injected themselves with blood products that were tainted. However, these cases could have been prevented if the French government properly screened the blood, which it completely neglected, experts report. Already, 300 hemophiliacs have died from AIDS as a result. The majority of HIV-positive people did not discover they were infected until years afterward. Some who knew they were infected were unaware of the implications so they engaged in unprotected sex, didn't receive life-prolonging drugs, and didn't prepare themselves psychologically for the ramifications of the disease. In 1983, France ignored offers from U.S. and Austrian companies for heated blood products. Subsequently, evidence was found that all of France's blood products were contaminated with HIV, according to a National Blood Transfusion Center study in early 1985. Meanwhile, the French government held up approval during 1985 of an American-made blood screening test to allow the Pasteur Institute to come up with its own. Also, the French blood donor system continued to allow people at high risk of HIV infection to donate blood. Consequently, thousands of people contracted HIV in a scandalous tragedy that could have been prevented if the French implemented the American-made blood screening test when it was first released.

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