Hep to hepatitis C
CMAJ 1997;157:874
On behalf of the Hepatitis C Society of Canada, I would like to express our appreciation for the excellent articles "Hepatitis C" (CMAJ 1997;156:1427-8 [full text / texte complet]), "Viral hepatitis: know your D, E, F and Gs" (CMAJ 1997;156:1735-6 [full text / texte complet]) and "The Krever inquiry: time to drop the appeals" (CMAJ 1997;156:1401-2 [full text / résumé]), by Dr. John Hoey.
We echo resoundingly your call for the Krever inquiry to continue unfettered by legal challenges from the Red Cross and its coappellants and for the Krever inquiry report to be released as soon as possible. We anxiously await the report's release and its recommendations to improve Canada's blood supply system. Justice Horace Krever alone knows what has to be done.
We would like to add some new information. As early as 1981 the Ontario Ministry of Health knew of the contamination of the nation's blood supply by hepatitis C virus and warned the Red Cross that it would publicize this information.
Furthermore, a historically and epidemiologically interesting argument can be made that the contamination of the nation's blood supply was largely preventable from 1973 onward, if surrogate liver-function tests on donor blood and imported blood products had been performed by the Red Cross. This appalling failure led to hepatitis C "spilling over" into the population at large through other forms of blood-to-blood contact.
Thank you for your encouraging realization of the significance of
hepatitis C as a current and future health crisis facing all Canadians and all public health systems.
Alan T.R. Powell, PhD
Founding President
Board of Directors
Hepatitis C Society of Canada
Toronto, Ont.
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