Please take a moment and sign a petition to tell our government we will not have another tainted blood scandal:[
http://bloodwatch.org/ ]
If you want a more in-depth anaylsis of the situation and the facts above please see:
Council of Canadians Health Campaign[
http://canadians.org/healthcare ]
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Paid plasma myths and realities [
http://canadians.org/blog/paid-plasma-m ... -realities ]
March 10, 2016 - 12:02 am
There are certain blogs you never think you are going to have to write. Earlier this week the Council of Canadians put out an evidence based analysis of the paid plasma clinic that recently opened in Saskatchewan and the mistakes from the past we are repeating. [
http://canadians.org/blog/blood-money-w ... od-scandal ]
Our health minister has been in the media this week attempting to justify her decision not to shut down this paid plasma clinic. [
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/paid-plas ... -1.3480763 ] Unfortunately, many of these talking points seem to be incorrect and echo the statements made by big pharma and global plasma lobby (in fact the company in question Canadian Plasma Resources has been eagerly promoting her comments).
To disregards the lessons and legacy of those who died from the tainted blood scandal would be a major mistake. Here are some of the myths that need to be dispelled.
Myth: Paid Plasma Will Help Us Become Self-SufficientThe plasma that Canadian Plasma Resources plans to collect is not going to remain in Canada and Canadian Blood Services has no plans to purchase the plasma harvested by this company. Further, there are no facilities in Canada to process the plasma collected and manufacture the subsequent pharmaceutical products; so Canadian Plasma Resources will be selling their plasma to the U.S. or other markets. What this is really about is making huge profits of citizens (generally off of the most vulnerable) as the plasma will be will be sold to major pharmaceutical companies and researchers. What we are doing is is opening the door to international blood laundering. The resulting IVIG drugs are worth more per gram than gold and are in the same ballpark per gram as heroine. This is the global plasma trade, and it has nothing to do with making Canada plasma self-sufficient. In fact, Canadian Blood Services has closed down plasma collection centres over the past few years. If Canada did need to collect more blood and plasma, there are ways to do this and Canadian Blood Services and the Federal Government have the tools to accomplish this.
Myth: This Is Absolutely Safe And There Is No Reason To Be ConcernedThe health minister has stated that the Krever Commission into the tainted blood scandal took place over 20 years ago and there have been technological advancements, so we don’t have to worry. The Krever Commission strongly recommended against paid donations to prevent vulnerable people with diseases from selling their blood for money. A voluntary blood supply is deemed the safest and most reliable system of plasma and blood collection. The World Health Organization and the International Society of Blood Transfusion oppose payment fees for plasma donations. Going further, the World Health Organization wants all countries to move to unpaid donation systems by 2020 due to evidence based studies showing to volunteers having the lowest prevalence of blood-borne infections. Other organizations that that call for publicly-regulated, not-for-profit voluntary blood and plasma donation system include the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, the International Federation of Blood Donor Organizations and the European Blood Alliance. So in sum, pretty much every major evidence-based, international health organizations is against paid plasma for good reason.
In the tainted blood scandal we saw the same unfounded belief in our technological prowess that lead to over 60,000 people being infected with HIV and Hep-C, and thousands of deaths as a result. In plasma screening we lack the tests for many blood-borne infections, and especially emerging diseases (remember the tainted blood scandal). There is always a risk associated with harvesting plasma and the safest strategies are not test based but based on donor selection strategies. New threats will arise, that is a given.
How many of us had heard for the Zika virus, for example, prior to this year? When these outbreaks do occur they are not well understood, there are no diagnostic tests available, and there is no research available. Recently the US F.D.A told Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to stop collecting blood and import it because of the Zika outbreak there. The New York Times reported that, “there is no F.D.A.-licensed test to screen blood donations for Zika virus,” and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has stated, “the risk of Zika virus transmission through blood products is considered likely based on the most current scientific evidence of how Zika virus and similar viruses (flaviviruses) are spread.” There is also the Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is widespread and blood/plasma donors are often asymptomatic and recent analysis of blood and plasma donations has identified HEV-infected donors in Europe and USA. Consequently, HEV-RNA has been detected in plasma pools used for production of medicinal products. In 2000, Britain lost its entire plasma industry due to contamination with through the infectious agent of Mad Cow Disease (prions) and its new human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) vCJD.
Myth: This Clinic is SafeThere is no way to effectively detect and control the mixing of unregulated batches of plasma products which Canadian Plasma Resources is intending to export, there is an increased risk of the spread of plasma-borne infections globally. The plasma needed for domestic uses that come from voluntary donations are smaller and safer. This is in contrast to the massive plasma pools the pharmaceutical industry and plasma monopoly use (what Canadian Plasma Sources will be selling to). Further, Health Canada rarely, if ever, conducts unannounced inspections of blood facilities in Canada. When there are inspections, they are announced to the blood operators weeks or months ahead and are done annually, if at that.
Myth: There Is A Rigid Donor Screening ProgramStudy after study has shown that when you add remuneration into the donation process people lie and the safety of the blood and plasma supply is jeopardized (it also leads to a decline in voluntary donations). This is an established fact. At the same time, the business model for for-profit plasma companies follows the predatory and inexcusable model that lead to the tainted blood scandal; time after time, they are set up to take advantage of people’s poverty (especially in regards to racialized communities). When they attempted to set up in Ontario, Canadian Plasma Resources set up one clinic beside a methadone clinic and another by a homeless shelter. Their business model is the same as their international counterparts. In their newly opened clinic in Saskatoon they are located, “on Quebec Avenue, which is a few blocks away from the predatory loans and pawn shops that are along Idylwyld." The high rates of poverty and blood borne illnesses in the inner-city of the west side of Saskatoon where the for-profit plasma clinic is operating is a major cause for concern (Saskatchewan has the highest rates of HIV and Hepatitis-C in Canada).
What is sadly being ignored is that the populations being targeted in Saskatoon include large numbers of Indigenous people who face significant, and additional, barriers to health and wellbeing. Saskatoon has the second highest percentage of Aboriginal residents of all major cities in Canada at just over 9% of the population, and this population is expected to increase. Unfortunately, over 45% of the Aboriginal peoples living in Saskatoon are living in poverty (below the Low Income Cut-Off) and likely in areas of highest deprivation where health inequities are most persistent. Yet, while First Nations and Metis account for about 16 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population, they represented about 80 per cent of all new cases of HIV diagnosed in 2011, and that “The incidence rate in our Aboriginal population is about 88 per 100,000 [population], which is 14 times the national average, on par with various African countries.”
ConclusionThe fact of the matter is the safety and viability of Canada’s blood and blood products supply is ultimately a federal responsibility. There is no justification for the government’s inaction which is resulting in a fundamental shift in policy that benefits the interests of plasma businesses at the public’s expense.
The government must deny the license to Canadian Plasma Resources, and any other companies that propose to pay donors for blood, plasma or other blood products. They must also immediately instruct Canadian Blood Services to develop a real strategy to increase unpaid plasma clinics in Canada and move toward self-sufficiency in plasma supply. We must ensure that the blood system moves towards more voluntary plasma collection which is in the public interest.
Allowing licenses to Canadian Plasma Resources has no benefit to Canadians and is all risk and no reward. Plasma must be treated as a public resources and health issue; trading body parts as a commodity to profit off of is morally corrupt. Too many people have fought too hard and too long to have the truth be ignored again just so the pharmaceutical industry can make a big profit by controlling this public resource. To make the surviving victims of the tainted blood scandal go through this trauma once again is unacceptable. There is no reason jeopardize the safety our voluntary blood system. We’ve been here before and know the outcome, so why is health minister Jane Philpott making the deadly mistakes of the past again?
Please take a moment and sign a petition to tell our government we will not have another tainted blood scandal:[
http://bloodwatch.org/ ]
Michael Butler's blog
Health Campaigner for the Council of Canadians
[
http://canadians.org/blogs/michael-butler ]
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Regina chapter writes federal health minister about for-profit plasma donation clinics[
http://canadians.org/blog/regina-chapte ... on-clinics ]
January 4, 2016 – 6:30 pm
The Council of Canadians Regina chapter has written federal health minister Jane Philpott asking her to oppose for-profit plasma donation clinics.
On Dec. 23, CBC reported, "Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR), a company that pays for plasma donations, is hoping to set up a shop in Saskatoon. It's controversial, and has some people raising concerns. The process CPR uses for plasma donation [is] a similar process to donating blood, but the cells are returned to the donor during the process, and only the plasma is taken. As a result, donors can give much more frequently than they can for blood donations — as often as once a week." [
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... -1.3378382 ]
The article adds, "The most controversial part is that CPR pays people who donate. The practice was banned in Quebec and is about to be banned in Ontario. The company gives donors a $25 gift card for each donation. The gift card can be used almost anywhere a credit card can, but donors cannot withdraw cash from it, or transfer it into another person's name. ...The company is currently awaiting approval from Health Canada. [CPR CEO Barzin] Bahardoust said that if they open, they expect about half their donors to be students. ...[Dr. Ryan] Meili is also concerned that the company targets low-income people."
On Dec. 24, chapter activist Jim Elliott, a regular blood donor, wrote to Minister Philpott stating, "It has come to my attention that Canadian Plasma Resources is awaiting approval from Health Canada to allow them to pay for plasma donations. I believe this is fundamentally the wrong direction and a further erosion of the health services we pride ourselves in providing to the public of Canada."
He highlights in his letter, "Justice Horace Krever said that Canada should not pay donors for blood or plasma, except in rare circumstances. This is in line with the World Health Organization’s recommendation that all governments should strive for the safest process: using unpaid, voluntary blood and plasma donors. ...It would be my recommendation that this proposal by Canadian Plasma Resources be rejected on a number of reasons but principally it would put into jeopardy our valued blood services system. Voluntary donation of blood products is the cornerstone of a safe and adequate supply. We have to say no."
In a March 2013 campaign blog we noted, "The Harper government is considering an application from Canadian Plasma Resources to open for-profit blood donation clinics in Toronto and Hamilton where donors would be paid $20 for being hooked up to a plasma collection machine." [
http://canadians.org/node/9370 ]
By June 2013, we were able to report, "Last week, Council of Canadians’ chairperson Maude Barlow and numerous others dedicated to public health care signed an open letter on for-profit plasma clinics to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq that was published in the Hill Times. [
http://canadians.org/content/profit-blo ... e-your-say ]
Yesterday, Minister Aglukkaq announced that the federal government would re-open a (limited) consultation process and allow the public to comment on for-profit blood collection." By November 2014, Canadian Plasma resources had withdrawn its plans to open up to ten plasma collection centres in Ontario cities after the Ontario government announced its intention to ban paid blood donations through Bill 21, the Safeguarding Health Care Integrity Act.
The CEO of Canadian Plasma Resources says if Health Canada approves their application his company could be open in Saskatchewan as early as this month.
Further reading
WIN! Company abandons plans to establish for-profit plasma clinics in Ontario (Nov. 25, 2014) [
http://canadians.org/blog/win-company-a ... cs-ontario ]
Tags: chapters [
http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]
Brent Patterson's blog,
Political Director of the Council of Canadians,
[
http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
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LISTEN: Critics worry Sask. for-profit plasma clinic could erode Canada's blood supply[
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the- ... -1.3429867 ]
Tuesday February 02, 2016
Money for blood can be a controversial practice anywhere in the world, but especially so in Canada. Yet Saskatchewan is set to open the first for-profit plasma donation clinic in the country.
The tainted blood scandal of the '80s looms large over the discussion of paid-for donations after upwards of 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving tainted blood and plasma. And the federal inquiry that followed found that paid blood donations were in part to blame.
Since then the provinces of Ontario and Quebec moved to ban paid donations and there have been calls to put a federal ban in place. But Sask. says it's going ahead with a paid plasma clinic.
"It should be a unified, one-donor-system. We already pay Canadian blood services a billion dollars to ensure that we have integrity and supply in the system in Canada." - Mike McCarthy does not support paid-plasma donations in Canada
MORE:
[
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the- ... -1.3429867 ]
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Liberals allow private, for-profit blood plasma clinic to open in Saskatoon[
http://canadians.org/blog/liberals-allo ... -saskatoon ]
February 19, 2016 – 8:44 am
The Council of Canadians has been opposing Canadian Plasma Resources opening for-profit blood plasma donation clinics since March 2013.
Most recently, the Council of Canadians Regina chapter wrote federal health minister Jane Philpott asking her to oppose for-profit plasma donation clinics. On Dec. 24, 2015, chapter activist Jim Elliott, a regular blood donor, wrote to Minister Philpott stating, "It has come to my attention that Canadian Plasma Resources is awaiting approval from Health Canada to allow them to pay for plasma donations. I believe this is fundamentally the wrong direction and a further erosion of the health services we pride ourselves in providing to the public of Canada."
But now the Canadian Press reports, "Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is fending off calls to close a private, for-profit plasma donor clinic in Saskatchewan... The federal NDP called on Ottawa to ban such clinics. ...The political exchange [in the House of Commons] came after Canadian Plasma Resources officially opened its doors Thursday [Feb. 18] in Saskatoon." [
http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/private-pla ... -1.2783812 ]
The company gives donors a $25 gift card (which can be used almost anywhere a credit card can be used) for each plasma donation, which can be made as often as once a week.
The news article adds, "Unions have been among those calling for the Saskatchewan government to ban such clinics. Ontario did so when Canadian Plasma Resources tried to set up there. The Canadian Union of Public Employees said earlier this month that human tissue should not be 'turned into a commodity to be bought and sold'. The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour said Thursday that the clinics 'present a number of moral, ethical and safety concerns'. Federation president Larry Hubich said in a news release that paying donors 'compromises the safety of plasma, creates competition with our voluntary blood system and does not create self-sufficiency for the country'."
And Global News notes, "Saskatoon doctor Ryan Meili says he has concerns paid donation will decrease voluntary donation and that donating long-term could can lead to health complications." [
http://globalnews.ca/news/2526746/contr ... saskatoon/ ]
In Dec. 2015, CBC reported, "Meili said the process is not without health risks. In the U.S. where donating plasma is common, regular donors report weakness, chronic headaches, and other problems Meili said. He wants blood and plasma donations run by a single organization, Canadian Blood Services, because he believes it will mean better oversight and regulations. Meili is also concerned that the company targets low-income people." [
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... -1.3378382 ]
Federal health minister Jane Philpott has defended the for-profit clinic by stating, "We have examined this in great detail and have confirmed that we are approaching this matter looking at the science and making sure that there are no compromises to the safety of the blood system."
But in June 2013, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow signed an open letter that stated, "Allowing Canadian Plamsa Resources to pay donors for plasma is a significant change in practice for our country with respect to blood and plasma collection. The Krever inquiry on the tainted blood scandals specifically called for voluntary donations in Canada to ensure that we have the safest possible blood system, and accommodated deviation from that process only when absolutely necessary (as is the case in Canada’s one paid plasma facility in Winnipeg)." [
http://canadians.org/content/profit-blo ... e-your-say ]
The letter also noted, "Although Health Canada is responsible for evaluating the safety and regulatory aspects of Canadian Plasma Resources, it has not examined the impact of these paid donation facilities on our voluntary blood and plasma donation system. ,,,[We ask for a] national, public consultations that create a real public policy review that allows all interested parties to contribute to decision-making on this matter."
Further readingRegina chapter writes federal health minister about for-profit plasma donation clinics (Jan. 4, 2016)[
http://canadians.org/blog/regina-chapte ... on-clinics ]
WIN! Company abandons plans to establish for-profit plasma clinics in Ontario (Nov. 25, 2014)[
http://canadians.org/blog/win-company-a ... cs-ontario ]
Harper government considering application from for-profit blood donation clinic (March 28, 2013)[
http://canadians.org/node/9407 ]
Tags: chapters
[
http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]
Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[
http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]