The current controversy in Nova Scotia about paying donors for blood has been fraught with misinformation. The public deserves to know the truth about what is happening in our country.
I am a hemophiliac who has depended on safe blood products and was infected with hepatitis C from medicine manufactured with contaminated blood in 1984 (from plasma collected at an Arkansas prison). My two uncles were also exposed and have since perished from bad blood.
That makes this personal. I’ve dedicated three decades of my life to advocating for a safe and transparent blood system. Recent decisions by Health Canada, Canadian Blood Services and some of the provinces to support a for-profit, private plasma scheme has me worried that we are dangerously close to remaking the mistakes of the past.
Read the full article on The Chronicle Herald web site.