Three Canadian
health officials, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, and one
of its senior executives will learn their fate Monday when a
judge issues a verdict on charges that they allowed
hemophiliacs to contract HIV through tainted blood, a
case that has been called the worst public health
disaster in Canadian history.
The case is the
first criminal trial related to the more than 1,000
Canadians who became infected with HIV and up to 20,000
others who contracted hepatitis C after receiving
blood transfusions and tainted blood products from
Bridgewater, N.J.-based Armour Pharmaceutical Co. in
the 1980s and early 1990s. At least 3,000 people have died,
and others remain terminally ill.
The charges filed
in November 2002 claimed that the accused failed to
properly screen blood donors or their blood and then failed
to warn the public and the Canadian government about
the risks associated with their blood product,
Factorate.
The defendants
are Dr. Roger Perrault, the former medical director for
the Canadian Red Cross; doctors Donald Wark Boucher and John
Furesz, former officials at Canada's national Health
Protection Branch; and Dr. Michael Rodell, a former
vice president of Armour Pharmaceuticals. Each
physician pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence and
failure to prevent the distribution of Factorate. They
face up to 10 years in prison if convicted by the
judge.
Armour
Pharmaceuticals faces an additional charge of failing
to notify Canadian authorities that it continued to
market its blood-clotting products for two years after
having been told in 1985 that the heating process
with which the product was treated would not kill the
HIV virus.
''It is one of
the worst examples of how the health and safety of
hemophiliacs was largely disregarded for some reason,'' said
John Plater of the Canadian Hemophilia Society. Plater
said this particular case deals with seven people who
were infected with HIV after using Factorate and 65
people who were not but were put at risk of infection.
Closing arguments
finished in early September, and the verdict in the
18-month trial was to be delivered Monday afternoon by Judge
Mary Lou Benotto.
A 1997 inquiry
into Canada's tainted blood scandal concluded that many of
the infections could have been prevented. Judge Horace
Krever said failures among various blood agencies
contributed to the tragedy.
The Canadian Red
Cross pleaded guilty in 2005 to distributing blood
tainted with HIV and hepatitis C and was fined C$5,000
Canadian. The Red Cross apologized and dedicated C$1.5
million) to a scholarship fund and research project
aimed at reducing medical errors.
Responsibility
for Canada's blood supply for all provinces except Quebec
was later transferred from the Canadian Red Cross to
Canadian Blood Services. After a five-year
investigation, police laid criminal charges in the
case.
Last year, the
Canadian government announced a C$1-billion Canadian
medical compensation package for all those infected with
hepatitis C from tainted blood, which expanded a
previous package that had excluded thousands. (AP)
