Drug contaminated with HIV-AIDS distributed in Iraq for second time

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-11856-Drug-contaminated-with-HIV-AIDS-in-Iraq.html

Fear spread among Babel Province residents after receiving reports from Babel medical officials that the “Albumin” drug was contaminated with HIV-AIDS.

Babel governor Salem Mehdi Saleh said the Health Ministry ordered to withdraw the drug “Albumin” from the pharmacies and warehouses across Iraq while it is carrying out laboratory tests on the drug. snip

It is to be mentioned that this is the second time drugs contaminated with Aids are distributed in Iraqi markets after 2005 incident, when contamination cases were reported.

[fascisthunter]

1. Ok... Who Created These Drugs!?!?!?!

I cannot read arabic, so if anyone can, please read the rest of the article and try to find out. I seriously doubt this was a "mistake" if true.

On edit: who contaminated the Albumin.

[flashl]

3. Some research

In August 1996, a patient in Kansas developed an Enterobacter cloacae bloodstream infection (BSI) shortly after receiving Albuminar, a brand of human albumin. Albuminar contamination
was suspected.

...

During the epidemic period, 451 patients at VCSF received either Centeon or Alpha Therapeutic (Albutein, Los Angeles, CA) albumin. A total of 691 vials of Centeon Albuminar, lot P61205, were used during this period. The number of patients who received Albuminar from this lot is uncertain, since other lots of Albuminar were also used during the epidemic period and lot numbers were not consistently recorded in the patient medical records or pharmacy records.

edit:

Albumin constitutes >60% of blood plasma proteins <1>. Human albumin, a licensed biological product, may be purified from the plasma of human donors by cold ethanol fractionation. Albumin has frequently been used as a resuscitation fluid for shock, as a nutritional intervention for protein malnutrition, and as a treatment for hepatic cirrhosis with ascites or nephrotic syndrome with edema. However, the appropriate clinical indications for the use of albumin have been debated since the product was developed in the 1940s <2>, and a recent review suggests that administration of albumin to critically ill patients may increase mortality <3>. It is more expensive than other products used for the same indications, such as nonprotein colloid (e.g., hetastarch and dextran) and crystalloid (e.g., lactated Ringer’s and saline) solutions.

1. Guyton AC. Textbook of medical physiology. 7th ed. Philadelphia:WBSaunders,
1986:208.
University of Chicago Press - Infections Traced to Contaminated Human Albumin

How the contaimination could occur? Something like this perhaps?

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is a feature length documentary by Arkansas filmmaker and investigative journalist Kelly Duda. Through interviews and presentation of documents and footage, Duda alleges that for more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS. The documentary contends that thousands of victims who received transfusions of a blood product derived from these plasma products, "Factor 8", died as a result.

Factor 8 uses in-depth interviews and key documents as well as never-before-seen footage, to allege wrongdoing at the Arkansas state government under Governor Bill Clinton's leadership, and at the United States federal level.

Through in-depth interviews with a number of players, including victims in Canada who contracted the diseases, US state prison officials, former employees, high-ranking Arkansas politicians and inmate donors, Factor 8 examines a prison blood-harvesting scheme run by prisoners to earn them an income; the blood was then sold by blood companies for millions of dollars. The harvested plasma was then shipped around the world, where it has been reported to have infected thousands of haemophilia patients. Haemophilia is a genetic condition which prevents clotting.

In the United States, lawyers have won settlements for 8,000 US haemophilia sufferers after they were given infected blood. In 2002 the UK Government promised an inquiry if it was proven infected blood came from a US prison, although to date no inquiry has taken place. The UK Public Health Minister, Caroline Flint, has said: "We are aware that during the 1970s and 80s blood products were sourced from US prisoners" and the UK Haemophilia Society has called for a Public Inquiry. The UK Government maintains that the Government of the day had acted in good faith and without the blood products many patients would have died. In a letter to Lord Jenkin of Roding the Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) informed Lord Jenkin that most files on contaminated NHS blood products which infected people with HIV and hepatitis C had unfortunately been destroyed "in error". Fortunately, copies that were taken by legal entities in the UK at the time of previous litigation may mean the documentation can be retrieved and consequently assessed

Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal

[fascisthunter]

5. Holy F*cking Sh*t. This is Genocide

So where did this albumin come from? The US. UK?

I'll need to wait for more info.

[papau]

9. bad blood FBI investigation began in 74 per Washington Weekly - the

use of prison blood was bad due to poor supervision/controls and by 94 the US had stopped such usage - with Arkansas being the last State to stop.

In Arkansas the problem seems to have begun with "privatization" of the program via a contract to a single doctor's company called HMA.

In 1985 Clinton reacted to FDA reports about prevalence of problems with prison blood by ordering the state police to conduct an investigation. The State Department of Corrections at the same time started its own investigation.

It was discovered by the DOC that HMA had violated its state contract in forty areas, including poor health assessment and record keeping and the hiring of unlicensed, uncertified, and unqualified staff, while the State Police reported that a few HMA employees had been running a small-time gambling operation.

The prison board is not controlled by the Arkansas Governor so Clinton could not fire ADC director Art Lockhart, about whom many allegations of impropriety had been raised. He was and remained an employee of the ADC board. Again, he could not be fired by Clinton.

Seems Obama fans are now pushing this story as they try to take Hillary down - although other than the doctor that owned HMA being a democrat and contributing to Bill Clinton, it is hard to see a Clinton connection (albeit that Salon has tried to imply one)

[flashl]

14. In true American fashion ...

a fascinating aspect of the Factor 8 story is, no one ever expresses concern for the inmates or the thousands that received the tainted blood.

[papau]

15. hep C was a risk most of my life w/ screening tests first available in 92, hep B first screen was 72

hiv first screen was available in 85.

The only scandal was not using tests when they finally became available if we are referring to those getting the blood.

Our prisons are a scandal - and drug laws are a scandal - and infecting those in our prisons with hiv via dirty needles used by untaught inmate blood "technicians" is a scandal - if we are referring to the prison donor program.

I have not seen factor 8 - but I gather from your post that it tells only part of the pain that was caused.

[flashl]

16. Factor 8 may not cover every single aspect of the multi-facet

and far reaching effects of profiting from tainted blood or conducting blood transfusion on inmates when it jeopardizes their lives or the widespread transfer of HIV-AIDS into the black communities.

In the wake of human carnage, it just speaks to the 'nobody' is at fault aspect of daily scandals in the U.S.

America has an uncanny ability to reinvent itself as innocent as thousands lay at its feet.

[papau]

21. I agree - the "nobody did wrong" is wrong - the MD that owned HMA is the main guilty

person in Arkansas - as were the folks that owned the operations at other prisons and who established the same system that had no controls and no training and no supervision so as to keep costs low and profits high. Voters that voted into office those that were more worried about "excessive regulation" or "decreased contribution to the state" or "interfering with a local businessman" are also part of the problem.

But as you note - by noting all those that contributed to the problem, we lose sight of the folks that were mainly responsible.

[flashl]

22. We are not in disagreement ...

It's just hard to reconcile "good people's" silence about a horrible practice that covers a span of 20 years.

IMO, the far-reaching effects is not closed. Every AIDS day program should begin with the Factor 8 story to give it the widest dissemination. And, the human rights violations should also be a preamble to every conversation about American prisons.

What happen in this Arkansas story attacks the core of my being, to me it is far worse than the Tuskegee experiment.

[Warpy]

7. There are only so many blood banks round the world

making fractional products like albumen and clotting factors. The source should be pretty damned easy to track down. Once tracked down, they should be forced to change their methods or shut down.

My guess is that it originated in a country with incredibly lax safety and testing laws. A search of world suppliers turned up 114, many of those making it for veterinary use. There are two companies in India making it for use in humans. I would strongly suggest they start there. The other companies were concentrated in the US, Canada, and Western Europe.

http://www.icis.com/Search/ProductNumber/110945/WorldWide/Albumin+(9048+46+8).htm?o=0

[crikkett]

2. "albumin" is a protein!

[fascisthunter]

6. Yes.. we know that and This:

ALBUMIN (HUMAN) U. S. R, ALBUTEIN® 5% solution is a sterile aqueous solution for single dose intravenous administration containing 5 % human albumin (weight/volume). ALBUTEIN® is prepared by a cold alcohol fractionation method from pooled human plasma obtained from venous blood. The product is stabilized with 0.08 millimole sodium caprylate and 0.08 millimole sodium acetyltryptophanate per gram of albumin. ALBUTEIN® 5 % solution is osmotically and isotonically equivalent to an equal volume of normal human plasma. ALBUTEIN® 5 % solution contains 130-160 milliequivalents of sodium ion per liter and has a pH of 6.9 ± 0.5. The product contains no preservatives. ALBUTEIN® is heated at 60 °C for ten hours. No positive assertion can be made, however, that this heat treatment completely destroys the causative agents of viral hepatitis.

[Book Lover]

4. A) There is no drug named Albumin

B) No substance can be "contaminated with Aids"; only with a strain of an HIV virus

Since it's Yule, I'll be generous and say that this report is confusing and seemingly mendacious due to poor translation.

[Bobbieo]

8. Is this comparable to the English, blankets, small pox virus to the

Amerinds?

[Donnachaidh]

10. if'n ya can't beat em -- wipe em out!

I was thinking the same thing too. And you know - I put NOTHING past this White House. May the gods help us. :puke:

[NOLALady]

12. Depopulation Program?

http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/depopulation_linked_merck_pharma_announces_africa_plan.htm


"As Dr. Leonard Horowitz noted in 2005, the UN's World Health Organization "is rumored to have helped spread AIDS to Africa by way of contaminated hepatitis B and/or polio vaccinations. There is a reasonable amount of evidence to support this contention� the Rockefeller family, foundation, U.N. and WHO remain at the forefront of administering �population programs' designed to reduce world populations to more manageable levels."

In order to understand the mindset behind this eugenics program, take a look at Henry Kissinger's 1974 Plan for Food Control Genocide , published by the Schiller Institute.

Starvation, however, is too unreliable. AIDS is much more efficient."

[and-justice-for-all]

19. Eugenics is right!!! nt

[flashl]

20. NSSM 200

National Security Study Memorandum 200 or the Kissinger Report

And, "Death by Denial," a documentary produced by David Gelber and Helen Malmgren on the AIDS epidemic in South Africa that aired on "60 Minutes II" in 2000.

[The Magistrate]

11. Some Facts Would Be Nice, Sir

This report is distressingly thin on them....

[shadowknows69]

13. Having one of those "the human race doesn't deserve to exist" nights now.

I need to stop reading DU tonight and go party.

[LeftCoast]

17. Albumin is not a drug. It is a blood product.

Donated blood gets separated into numerous components. RBCs (Red Blood Cells), Platelets, etc. Albumin is a water soluble protein that forms a significant component of blood. As far as I know it is possible to spread HIV this way, but modern testing procedures if followed, should prevent contamination. Obviously something went wrong here.

[and-justice-for-all]

18. So they gave HIV to people...

can you say genocide? or at least Megadeath.