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Canadian Red Cross begins testing donations for HIV

Broadcast Date: Nov. 3, 1985

By 1985 five Canadians have developed AIDS as a result of receiving transfusions of tainted blood, and hundreds more have probably been infected with HIV. An antibody test is now readily available and the Canadian Red Cross plans to use it on all blood donations starting tomorrow. But they have no idea how many more recipients will get AIDS from past transfusions of unscreened blood.

Canadian Red Cross begins testing donations for HIV

• A person infected with HIV produces special molecules called antibodies to try to fight the infection. Someone who tests positive for these antibodies is "HIV positive." That means they have the virus, but they may not get AIDS for many years. But they can infect others during this period.

• In March of 1983 the Canadian Red Cross Society issued a press release advising "members of groups identified as being at high risk of carrying Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) not to give blood." They identified homosexual and bisexual males, recent Haitian immigrants and intravenous drug users as "high risk." Many gay activists and Haitians protested the "high risk" designation because they felt it branded them and made them targets for even more discrimination than they already faced.

• During the late 1970s and early 1980s about 2,000 Canadians were infected with HIV from contaminated blood products and hundreds more contracted hepatitis C even after tests were available for both diseases. The 1997 final report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (the Krever Inquiry) refers to this as "a public health disaster that was unprecedented in Canada." Since the scandal, blood operations have been turned over to Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Québec.

Canadian Red Cross begins testing donations for HIV

Medium: Television

Program: Sunday Report

Broadcast Date: Nov. 3, 1985

Guest(s): David Milligan, Jack Nusbacher


Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Eve Savory

Duration: 3:11

Last updated:
Oct. 27, 2008


End of list




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