By: E&P Staff Evidence uncovered by The Kansas City Star helped bring about a $1 billion settlement for approximately 5,500 Canadians with Hepatitis C, the paper reported today.
Michael McCarthy, the lead plaintiff in the Canadian case, told the Star that documents that the paper printed helped to aid his case against the Canadian government. McCarthy was one of thousands who contracted Hepatitis C through tainted blood transfusions in the 1980s. In 2003, the Star published a series of articles that said Red Cross, Canadian, and United States officials knew of a test that could prevent Hepatitis C from entering the blood supply. The Star expos? dated the advent of this knowledge at 1981; Canada did not begin utilizing this test until the early 1990s.
The Star series of reports included documents from 1981 that quoted top U.S. blood experts as saying that blood collection agencies should begin testing for Hepatitis C.
The compensation package brings to a close the eight-year legal battle that pitted Hepatitis C victims against the Canadian government, the Star reported. The $1 billion settlement will be divided into payments ranging from $30,000 to $300,000, depending on the severity of the victim?s illness. The settlement covers both living victims and the estates of those who have died.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can severely damage the liver. In the mid-1970s, nearly 300,000 or roughly 10% of transfusion patients in the United States were infected with it each year. It wasn?t until 1986 that the U.S. began utilizing the Hepatitis C test for blood transfusions.
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