The Common Factor, no. 8

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The Common Factor

issue 8.4 The Common Factor issue 8

Upcoming Events

IOM Investigation Opens
ON MAY 16 THE Institute of Medicine (IOM) opened "The Committee
to Study HIV Transmission through
Blood Products." The eighteen
month investigation was initiated by
Health and Human Services Sec.
Shalala following a request from
Sens. Graham (D-FL) and Kennedy
(D-MA) and Rep. Goss (R-FL).
It is ultimately the result of years
of pressure being brought by those
in the hemophilia community seeking an accounting of how half of the
community was infected through
AIDS tainted factor concentrates.
The first meeting consisted of
three panels. 1) FDA, CDC and NIH.
2) Red Cross, the Council of Community Blood Centers and the American Blood Resources Association. 3)
COTT, the Peer Association, the National Hemophilia Foundation and
representatives from Sen. Graham's
and Rep. Goss's offices.
After several hours of drab presentations from government and industry describing business as usual
in the business of blood, COTT President Jonathan Wadleigh changed the
tenor of the meeting with his passionate opening statement: "This is
not about abstract questions regarding blood safety; it is about the preventable infection of thousands of
human beings with a fatal disease."
Wadleigh continued, "The central
question remains how the drug companies, the blood banks, the Red
Cross, and the federal regulatory
structure all failed in their collective
responsibility to ensure, to the maximum degree possible, the safety of
blood and blood products."
Dana Kuhn, co-chair of the
COTT Government Relations Working Group, stated that "this was a
crisis waiting to happen, in part, due
to the rampant conflict of interest at

the FDA. The drug companies and
the blood banking industry had and
continue to have an inordinate
amount of influence over the FDA's
decisions. The FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee, BPAC, is
dominated by blood bankers, industry and the medical establishment."
Kuhn then turned his attention on
NHF which he stated "claimed to be
acting solely in the interests of persons with hemophilia, but in reality,
acted consistently in concert with industry by downplaying the risks of
AIDS transmission while advising
the community to continue infusing
what we now know were AIDS
tainted factor concentrates."
Wadleigh challenged the committee to question the basis of analysis
that has shaped government's perceptions of what happened: "You must
look past the results of studies regarding this epidemic to who did the studies and what their vested interests
might be." He further stated that
"while we view the IOM investigation as a step forward, we are deeply
concerned regarding community input into the process. If the panel is
truly committed to understanding the
hemophilia holocaust then short statements will have to be abandoned in
favor of more substantive dialogue."
COTT Media Coordinator Corey
Dubin closed the presentation by
challenging the industry, Red Cross,
and government testimony about
their response to the AIDS crisis. According to Dubin, "inaction and neglect were the hallmarks of their
response to AIDS. Once again, profit
and costs dictated the response and
that response resulted in the devastation of three generations of persons
with hemophilia and their families."
There will be a public hearing of
the IOM in September.?

* BPAC Meeting. June 20-22,
Bethesda, MD.
* 16th National Lesbian and Gay
Health Conference: June 21-25,
New York City. Call (202) 994 -4285. Followed by a march for the
25th anniversary of the Stonewall
Uprising on June 25.
* Hemophilia Federation Meeting.
June 23-25, Washington, D.C. Call
Jan Hamilton [phone].
* HIV/AIDS and Chinese Medicine
Conference: July 22-24, San Francisco. Call [phone].
* 18th AIDS Clinical Trials Group
Meeting: July 23-27. Ramada Renaissance Hotel, Washington, DC.
* Tenth International AIDS Conference: August 7-12, Yokohama, Japan. Call 81 3 3466 5812.
* Women: Storm the FDA for Access to Clinical Trials. Sept. 20 in
Rockville, MD. Call Lisa Hernandez at [phone] for info.

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