Blood Transfusions-A Long History of Controversy

 Blood-borne Diseases

 After World War II, great studies in medicine made possible some surgeries that were previously uninmaginable.  Consequently,  a global multimillion-dollar industry sprang up  to supply the blood for transfusion, which physicians began to consider standard operating procedure. 

Soon, however, concern over transfusion-related disease came to the fore.  During the Korean war, for example, nearly 22 percent of those who received plasma transfusions developed hepatitis-almost triple the rate during World War II. By the 1970's , the U.S. Center for Disease Control estimated the number of deathes from transfusion-related hepatitis at 3,500 a year.  Others put the figure ten times higher.

Thanks to better screening and more careful selection of donors, the number of cases of hepatitis-B contamination declined.  But then a new and sometimes fatal form of the virus -hepatis  C- too a heavy toll. It is estimated that four million Americans contracted the virus, several hundred of them through blood transfusions.  Granted, vigorious testing eventually reduced the prevalence of hepatis  C.  Still, some fear that new dangers will appear and will only be understood when it is too late. 

Next time: Blood Transfusions-A Long History of Controversy - Another Scandal:HIV-Contaminated Blood

From the jw.org publications