HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?

BLOOD, RUINED LIVERS AND . . .

"Ironically, blood-borne AIDS . .  . has never been as great a threat as other diseases-hepatitis, for instance," explained the Washington Post. 

Yes, vast numbers have gotten very sick and have died from hepatitis which has no specific treatment. According to U.S. News & Word Report (May 1, 1989) about 5 percent of those given blood in the United States get hepatitis-175,000 people a year. About half become chronic carriers, and at least 1 in 5 develop cirrhosis or cancer of the liver. It is estimated that 4,000 die. Imagine the headlines you would read if a jumbo jet crashed, killing all aboard. But 4,000 deaths amount to a full jumbo jet crashing every month!

Physicians had  long known  that a milder hepatitis (type A) was spread through unclean food or water. Then they saw that a more serious form was spreading through blood., and they had no way to screen blood for it. Eventually, brilliant scientists leaned how to direct "footprints" of this virus (type B).  By the early 1970's, blood was being screened  in some lands.  The blood supply appeared safe and the future for blood bright!  Or was it?

Before long it was clear that thousands who were given screened blood still developed hepatitis. Many, after debilitating illness, learned that their lives were ruined.  But if the blood had been tested, why was this happening?  The blood contained another form, called non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANB). For a decade it plagued transfusions-between 8 and 17 percent of those  transfused in Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and the United States contracted it.  

Next time: HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?'/Conclusion of: BLOOD, RUINED LIVERS AND . . .

From the Watchtower magazine