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".