After four doctors and a US drug company were acquitted in Canada last week of criminal charges relating to the distribution of infected blood products, the doctors' lawyers have said that the case should never have been brought. But patients' groups greeted the acquittal with dismay.
The products infected more than 1000 Canadians with HIV and up to 20 000 with hepatitis C. Events dating back more than 20 years have become known as the nation's worst preventable public health disaster.
On 1 October, after an 18 month trial, Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto acquitted Roger Perrault, former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross Society, John Furesz and Donald Boucher, former federal health department officials, and Michael Rodell, a former executive of Armour Pharmaceutical. They had been accused of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and of common nuisance endangering the public, after patients were given infected blood clotting products in 1986-7. Armour Pharmaceutical faced the same charges.
The judge called the events tragic, “but to assign blame where none exists would compound the tragedy . . . There was no conduct that showed wanton and reckless disregard . . . [and] no marked departure from the standard of a reasonable person. On the contrary, the conduct examined in detail over one and a half years confirms reasonable, responsible, and professional actions and responses during a difficult time.”
After the verdict defence lawyers said that the charges should never have been laid. Edward Greenspan, Dr Perrault's lawyer, said that Dr Perrault's complete exoneration “is something we've been hoping for and actually expecting for the last 10 years.” But he said that the lengthy battle had taken a toll on Dr Perrault, who is 70 and has been ill for some time. He still faces a criminal trial later this year on several charges stemming from allegations that the Canadian Red Cross Society and senior officials failed to take adequate measures to screen blood donors.
In November 1997 a Royal Commission led by Mr Justice Horace Krever released a report criticising the Red Cross and provincial and federal governments for ignoring warnings and acting irresponsibly. He recommended compensation for all “blood injured persons.”
In May 2006 an apology to infected people was issued by the Red Cross (BMJ 2005;330:1349 doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7504.1349-a). The federal and Ontario governments later announced compensation for people infected in the period 1986 to 1990, and in July 2006 Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a $C1bn (£0.5bn; €0.7bn; $1bn) compensation package for 5500 people who contracted the diseases before and after this period.
Patients' groups and people infected during the four year period reacted angrily to the verdict. Mike McCarthy, past president of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, who contracted hepatitis C more than 20 years ago, called the decision a “miscarriage of justice.” Janet Conners, of Nova Scotia, whose husband died as a result of the events and who herself was infected with HIV, has vowed to push for an appeal. She said she was stunned by the verdict. “I don't believe she (Benotto) has any idea of the impact of what happened on our lives . . . and I just wonder who she is talking about in terms of tragedy.”
The Red Cross blood service was replaced by a new blood service in 1997 (BMJ 1997;315:1559-64).