I have just finished reading Haemophilia Holocaust: A Story of Medical and Bureaucratic Denial, Incompetence and Corruption, (Updated edition, 2020), by Dr Richard Davis, and it is a gripping read. The book deals with the not-well publicised issue of the contamination of the Australian blood supply, leading to 8,000 Australians being infected with Hepatitis C and 2,500 with HIV. However, Australia’s Tainted Blood Action Group, believes that up to 20,000 Australians were infected, making this a “holocaust” (p. v)
Contaminated blood issues occurred in many other countries, including China, where it apparently is still a problem. In the US, there were settlements of $ 100,000 each for haemophiliacs who were infected. The main issue was the importation of foreign plasma, which was contaminated, much of it coming from prison populations, notorious for blood-borne infections. While the issue has been dealt with overseas, no major review of the tainted blood issue has occurred in Australia (p. viii) This is shocking since up to 50 percent of haemophiliacs had been infected with HIV.