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Contaminated haemophilia blood products were a serious public health problem in the late 1970s through 1985. These products caused large numbers of haemophiliacs to become infected with HIV and hepatitis C. The companies involved included Alpha Therapeutic Corporation, Institut Mérieux (which then became Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., and is now part of Sanofi), Bayer Corporation and its Cutter Biological division, Baxter International and its Hyland Pharmaceutical division. Estimates range from 6,000 to 10,000 haemophiliacs in the United States becoming infected with HIV.〔 Factor VIII is a protein that helps the clotting of blood, which haemophiliacs, due to the genetic nature of their condition, are unable to produce themselves. By injecting themselves with it, hemophiliacs can stop bleeding or prevent bleeding from starting; some use it as often as three times a week. == Initial concerns == In 1981 concern was growing over an unidentified infectious disease associated with immune system collapse that would later become known as AIDS. In the U.S. it was found mostly in homosexual men and intravenous drug users, while in France doctors were finding it in a more diverse group of patients.〔And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts, 1987, St Martin's Press〕 On July 16, 1982, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that three haemophiliacs had acquired the disease.〔 Epidemiologists started to believe that the disease was being spread through blood products, with grave implications for haemophiliacs who had routinely injected themselves with concentrate made from large pools of donated plasma, much of which was collected commercially by plasmapheresis in cities that had many homosexuals, IV drug users and former prisoners, as well as inside many prisons.〔 Without an accurate infection test, health officials had no way to determine how many plasma donors carried it. In January 1983, the manager of plasma procurement for Bayer's Cutter Biological division acknowledged in a letter that "There is strong evidence to suggest that AIDS is passed on to other people through ... plasma products."〔 In March 1983, the CDC warned that blood products "appear responsible for AIDS among haemophilia patients."〔 By May 1983, a Cutter rival began making a heat-treated concentrate and France decided to halt all clotting concentrate imports.〔 Cutter feared losing customers, so according to an internal memo, Cutter "want() to give the impression that (were ) continuously improving our product without telling them (expected ) soon to also have a heat-treated" concentrate.〔 The process rendered the virus "undetectable" in the product, according to a government study.〔 By June 1983, a Cutter letter to distributors in France and 20 other countries said that "AIDS has become the center of irrational response in many countries" and that "This is of particular concern to us because of unsubstantiated speculations that this syndrome may be transmitted by certain blood products."〔 France continued using older style, untreated concentrate through until August, 1983.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Contaminated haemophilia blood products」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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