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Hepatitis C (HCV) Disease Epidemic

History of Blood & Byproduct Management

Table of Contents Includes:

What you will learn...
The HCV Disease (Hepatitis C) epidemic is discovering what was. CDC reports that in 1988, 242,000 Hepatitis C infections were reported annually. However, Military infection rates, as any federal institutions, are not defined in this data. These high figures were reported in the 1950's and 60's, among military. High infection rates continued until effective solvents were discovered that rid HCV virus from environmental surfaces.

September 1999, Sterilants and Disinfectants Applied and Environmental Microbiology, p. 4255-4260, Vol. 65, No. 90099-2240/99/$04.00+0 Bacterial Spores Survive Treatment with Commercial Sterilants and Disinfectants Hepatitis C Survives Treatment with Commercial Sterilants and Disinfectants

Since mandatory heating or washing of blood products and discontinuing the use of jetgun injections during mass vaccination, reused needles and vials; the annual number of new infections began to declined...

The HCV epidemic began out of the military need to address hepatitis during WWII; after an outbreak among troops that received experimental yellow fever vaccinations. Researchers discovered in 1977, that stored blood from infected soldiers were HCV positive as well, and labeled the new disease non-a non-b.

The hepatitis C epidemic has occurred because of the conditions that existed during the Cold War, Korean and Vietnam era's for processing blood, blood products and vaccines. Lack of ability to sterilize surfaces and devices widened the scope of disease transmission. The blood and blood based product development processes were not guided by the strict standards in place today.

The military personnel shared toothbrushes, manicure items, razors and rags. They had surgery, dental or medial, and received injections with reusable needles and/or syringes. All had finger sticks with reused lancets by technicians that did not wear gloves. Most were vaccinated by jet injection and many injected with reused bifurcated (two-pronged) needle that is dipped into the small pox vaccine solution, a blood based product.

Comments from HCVets Facebook group member Dottie:
I am going to post something so that others are aware of the HUGE mistakes that were made and the horrific risks people were placed in. In 1979, I was incarcerated in the St. Louis City Workhouse in Missouri. They had a program in place that offered $15.00 to the prisoners that would let their blood be drawn, saline solution put in and they waited while other prisoners like myself spun the plasma out of their blood. Then the blood was placed back into the prisoner. I know this is true. I witnessed it and worked in that section for a few months. Not one person ever had their blood tested prior to selling the plasma in their blood. I only hope this helps someone out there realize the magnitude of how far hep c was able to reach. That was a lot of money to most prisoners back then and there was never any lack of supply. We never wore gloves.

Read more::Cutter oversaw and processed the the workhouse program patients plasma.  An executive of Cutter Laboratories once acknowledged, for instance, that gross contamination was apparent in the areas where the largest blood plasma operations were conducted. The rooms were "sloppy," he observed. When a Government doctor asked why Cutter continued to reward such an enterprise with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of business, the executive explained that the Stough group enjoyed crucial "contacts" with well placed officials. 

1988 Expert Witness AFFIDAVIT OF THOMAS DREES...He states he has seen “documents which indicate fractionators in conjunction with Dennis Donohue of the FDA and the AABB and ARC conspired to prevent the use of the HB Core Test from being implemented to prevent having to incur the expense of the test to avoid having to reject donors who were positive for the test.” “It is now clear to me that the HB Core Test should have been used from the time it became available through Abbott Laboratories in 1975.” “there was such resistance to the use of the HB Anti Core Test by the blood industry, and the blood industries resistance to take the most obvious and needed precautions to the AIDS epidemic convinces me that there was a concerted effort by the influential leaders of the blood industry to save dollars at the expense of lives, even when it was clear beyond any doubt that there was widespread contamination of the blood supply.