San Francisco Chronicle - Wednesday, December 16, 1992
Peter Benesh, Chronicle Foreign Service

The number of suits is expected to grow into the hundreds as knowledge of the problem spreads in the next few months.

Eighty Canadians are known to have died from contaminated transfused blood, and it is believed that as many as several hundred more have succumbed to undiagnosed AIDS. The Canadian situation differs from the highly publicized tragedy that befell 1,200 hemophiliacs and as many as 8,000 nonhemophiliacs in France; in 1985, health officials there allowed transfusions from blood stocks that were known to be contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Red Cross in Canada is accused of having lagged behind the United States in establishing mandatory treatment of whole blood and blood products in the mid-1980s.

"We maintain that the crime was not one of commission, but a crime of omission," said David Page, vice president of the Montreal-based Canadian Hemophilia Society. "Governments failed to put into place safety procedures, and no one assumed leadership and exercised their responsibility of ensuring public health."

About 800 Canadian hemophiliacs and 400 surgery patients are known to have been infected by untested and untreated blood products. Health officials estimate that as many as 800 of them will develop AIDS by 1995.

A Hemophilia Society report submitted to the federal Health and Welfare Department last month stated that only a small number of the hundreds of nonhemophiliacs who received contaminated blood have been traced by the Red Cross. Many learned what had caused their illness when they were dying of AIDS. Some spouses are now also the indirect victims of the contaminated blood products, according to the report.

HEAT TREATMENT

The issue goes back to 1983, when international scientists began calling for heat treatment of blood and blood products to prevent the transmission of viral contamination. The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta first warned of the link between blood and HIV in January 1983.

But neither the Canadian Red Cross (the distributor of all blood for transfusions in the country), the federal government, nor Canada's 10 provincial, two territorial and federal health authorities did anything to limit infection of the 2,500 Canadian hemophiliacs who required a blood coagulant called Factor 8. (Factor 8 is required only by those suffering the most severe cases of hemophilia; other patients can use alternate blood products.)

Scientists discovered in 1984 that heat treatment killed the AIDS virus, making Factor 8 safe. However, Canada did not begin universal blood screening and heat treatment until November 1985 -- eight months after the United States acted.

Researchers now believe that older stocks of contaminated blood and blood products were used in several regions of Canada for up to two years -- until November 1987 -- after the screening and heat treatment began. Some Canadians who were infected in the mid-1980s still have not been traced and notified by authorities.

ECONOMIC NATIONALISM

As was the case in France, economic nationalism appears to have played a role in Canada. Connaught Laboratories, located in Toronto and then owned by the government, was the sole Canadian producer of Factor 8 from 1981 to 1984. According to information made public by the Hemophilia Society, the company was so inefficient during the period that it wasted more than 200,000 blood donations -- a one-year supply.

After the warning by the Centers for Disease Control in January 1983, the Canadian Hemophilia Society requested that all Canadian blood be sent to the United States for fractionating, or separation, and heat treatment. But, according to Page, the Ontario government insisted that, to protect jobs, Connaught should produce all blood products for Canada. But Connaught's lack of heat-treatment capability soon forced it out of the blood business. The resultant shortage of Factor 8 forced the Red Cross to import untreated plasma from the United States until November 1985, and use of the untreated stocks continued for up to two years afterward.

PRESS CONFERENCE

At a press conference last month in Montreal, Red Cross Secretary-General George Weber blamed the untreated U.S. blood for Canada's problem.

The Hemophilia Society has also accused the Red Cross of having instituted a triage system to categorize hemophiliacs after it became apparent that there would not be enough heat-treated blood to go around. The Red Cross has denied the charge, and the issue will be resolved in court.

According to Page, children received blood that was known to be pure whereas older people received less reliable blood. Those between the ages of 20 and 30 allegedly received blood considered to be the least reliable.

'IT'S HOMICIDE' Jean-Daniel Couture, a Montreal hemophiliac in whom the human immunodeficiency virus was detected in 1985, said he knew nothing of the triage system when he received Factor 8.

"The decision was made for me . . . . It's homicide, pure and simple," he said.

Many of the facts surrounding the plight of Canadian blood recipients have been on the public record for some time. But the French scandal acted as a catalyst to re-examine the heretofore scattered records.

The research that has led to the spate of recent lawsuits pinpointed for the first time the link between the HIV cases and those who received untreated Factor 8. Many of the deaths that have occurred were not diagnosed as AIDS by doctors because the patients did not fit the profile of high-risk behaviors.

"It only proves what we've been saying," said 45-year-old Garry Colley, one of the recipients of contaminated blood, who now has AIDS. "The provinces and the (federal) government knew all along there was a danger and did not adequately warn the public. "I'm an angry man. What would you do if I handed you a death warrant?"

Colley and 20 HIV-positive hemophiliacs are among those filing lawsuits against the Red Cross and government.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS

Provincial governments face at least 80 lawsuits from the recipients of contaminated blood. The claims are expected to exceed $300 million, according to John Plater, president of the Hemophilia Society's Ontario branch. The legal costs, which the victims plan to ask the courts to award, could double that amount.

The lawsuits allege that provincial health authorities could have acted to reduce the risk of HIV infection from blood products earlier than they did. Some suits name the Canadian Red Cross, Connaught Laboratories, individual hospitals and doctors. One Quebec victim has filed a class-action suit on behalf of 220 victims.

"Our allegation is that the Red Cross was negligent," said Bruce Lemer, a Vancouver lawyer representing 11 clients. "They had all the knowledge necessary to make the decision and implement (a screening program). Yet they failed to take the necessary action," Lemer said.

Shortly before it started AIDS screening in 1985, the Red Cross said its delay was forced by the need to obtain government financing.

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