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MisPandora -> RE: Being HIV+ Sucks (11/14/2006 1:54:11 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: amlonging
quote:
ORIGINAL: LadyEllen
There are plenty of blood products out there which have not been screened. Corrupt companies simply relabel them and pass them on. The Brit lawyer who is up for corruption alongside the ex Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is mixed up with just such a company in Italy which exports stuff like this. Profit over people, every time.
E
Tis NOT true in the US. All blood products are screened and there are so many people who CANNOT give blood for medical reasons as simple as hypothryroidism and the meds they are on.......... ALL blood products are screened so well in the US.
I work in the tissue banking industry and I'll call bullshit on this.
Why? Just this past year there was a scandal involving a company based in Fort Lee, NJ called Biomedical Tissue Services that were illegally recovering cadaveric tissues (bones and soft tissues, tendons, ligaments, etc) from unscreened, untested donors. These raw materials (solid bones like femurs, hemipelvis, and their tissues) were then distributed to End Processors who distributed transplantable bone grafts and product from this material, believing that all of their documentation and practices were done according to medical and ethical standards. WRONG! As it turns out, these creeps had falsified everything including their consent forms! They forged signatures, illegally obtaining consent to recover parts from people whose families NEVER GAVE CONSENT. Some of these patients included people with CANCER! This organization forged official death records to make it look like the people died from something else like a heart attack, and even changed their birthdays to make them appear younger. Medical social histories were falsified. With the collusion of funeral directors and other involved parties, they managed to BURY these patients with prosthetic devices in place of their bones and tissues -- all the while, the families had no idea what had transpired.
Given all of this fraudulent activity, it is uncertain as to whether the blood for testing that accompanied the donor material actually belonged to the donor, or whether it came from some other source. Would you trust that they didn't just pull a red top and a purple top from their co-workers arm or from a known healthy donor. All of this deception contributed to hundreds of thousands, if not millions more dollars in the pockets of former dentist turned chop-shop technician Mr Mastromarino.
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2006/NEW01309.html
http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/topic/biomedical_tissue_services_scandal?ylc_topic_next_page=6
Thousands of patients were end recipients of the tissues illegally and unethically recovered by this agency. These folks don't know if they have HIV, hepatitis, syphillis, or even have received cancerous tissues into their bodies.
If there is one corrupt organization doing this sort of thing and unethically polluting the donor pool, do you think it's impossible for anyone else in the world to not be doing it. Was this really an isolated case? In court right now in Canada, Red Cross, government and private sector officials are in trial over a blood DISASTER in the 80s and 90s in their blood banking that caused over 1,000 new HIV infections and over 20,000 HCV infections.
Incidentally -- hypothyroidism is NOT a ruleout for blood or tissue donation.
I'd be happy to research for anyone the specific blood region you're in (country/region) for correct answers, however, one of the best general resources for blood donation information is at http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0,1082,0_557_,00.html
It is up to date with the current Good Tissue Practice changes that the FDA implemented in 2005.
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