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balanced view
"The development of homologous serum hepatitis is a hazard which besets
rather less than 1 per cent of recipients of whole blood or small-pool
plasma. . .
"Recipients vary in their susceptibility. It has been found that a minute
fraction of a millilitre of virus-laden blood was enough to cause hepatitis
and it was for this reason that the production of large-pool plasma. . . . was
abandoned in favour of limited pools . . .
"Some patients suffer no upset from the transmitted virus, some may have
only a transient liver dysfunction with or without jaundice and yet others
may develop a rapidly fatal hepatic necrosis." (pages 25-26)
SERUM HEPATITIS UNCOMMON IN BRITAIN
The above present the British experience, where 99% of donations are given voluntarily, compared to
7% in the United States. This is why, states The Gift Relationship, in Britain:
"In no case has the incidence (of hepatitis) been shown to be higher than 1%
and in the most recent study (from Birmingham) it was nil. . .
"A study published in 1970 concluded that serum hepatitis is 'an uncommon
disease' in Great Britain." (page 154, footnote)
COMMERCIAL DONORS
The Gift Relationship shows the situation is critical in countries where donors receive payment for
their blood, as in the United States and Japan. Here the problem stems from the poor quality of the
donor, who is most often of a class susceptible to being a carrier of hepatitis, such as prisoners,
narcotics users (having been infected from needles used in the self-administration of their drugs) and
alcoholics.
Statements appearing in the Chapter of The Gift Relationship that the QB booklet refers to include
"One of the main keys to preventing hepatitis after transfusion . . . was in
the careful checking of the source of the blood . . .
"No matter what method of case finding was used, the lowest incidence of
post-transfusion hepatitis was seen when commercially supplied avoided . . .
"The risk of serum hepatitis from transfusions derived from prison and Skid
Row populations is at least ten times that from the use of voluntary donors.
"The risk of hepatitis 'developing in recipients of blood known to have been
donated by convicted or suspected narcotics was 70 times that in the
controls' . . .
"The only answer, according to other authorities, is to 'eliminate the
professional donor entirely'." (pages 146, 147, 152)
©1987 Doug Mason 50 doug_mason1940@yahoo.com.au
5: Handling Medical Evidence
THE PROBLEM
The problem does not lie with the principle of blood transfusion but in the human factor, where drug
users, for example, sell their blood for money to buy more drugs. Such sources represent a public
health hazard. Such hazards are minimised when donations are made purely voluntarily. There is a
difference between donated blood and commercially supplied blood.
"There are more deaths caused by the use of blood from paid donors than
from the use of blood from volunteer donors." (The Gift Relationship, page
152)
OTHER STATEMENTS DISREGARDED
Significant statements in The Gift Relationship have been completely disregarded by the QB booklet.
For example:
"The Uniqueness of Blood. Despite the development of plasma substitutes
and other products, advances in the freezing and preservation of blood to
permit longer-term stockpiling, and the use of specific blood components,
there is no substitute for the vast majority of patients for the direct use of
fresh whole human blood. No alternative to whole blood and its main
component elements has yet been developed in the research laboratory. The
human body remains the only source." (pages 20-21)
"The transfer of blood and blood derivatives from one human being to
another represents one of the greatest therapeutic instruments in the hands of
modern medicine. It has made possible the saving of life on a scale
undreamt of several decades ago and for conditions which would have been
considered hopeless." (page 27)
"'In medicine there is no substitute for human blood'." (page 31)
In his book, author Richard Titmuss uses the topic of blood transfusion as a means for discussing
social policy and social attitudes. His comments are pertinent to this present Study:
"In all cultures and societies, blood has been regarded as a vital, and often
magical, life-sustaining fluid, marking all important events in life, marriage,
birth, initiation and death. . . . Symbolically and functionally, blood is
deeply embedded in religious doctrine. . . From time immemorial it has
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