-Caveat Lector- Documents show French officials covered up tainted blood Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Associated Press PARIS (July 9, 1999 12:06 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Fearing a legal backlash, French health officials purposely failed to notify blood transfusion recipients they may have contracted AIDS, according to an official document published Friday. In a memo dated Dec. 13, 1989, and published Friday by the Le Parisien daily, then-top health ministry official Jean-Francois Girard urged caution in tracking down and notifying transfusion recipients. "Before taking action, consider the consequences," he wrote. "The major risk is a media backlash favoring the demands of the blood recipients and group legal action on their behalf." Girard, elected president of the World Health Organization's executive council, is widely regarded as one of Europe's most influential health officials. The incriminating document strengthens the case against former health minister Claude Evin, recently charged with involuntary homicide for failing to notify blood recipients that they may have contracted AIDS. Evin is the fourth minister to be tried in the scandal that rocked the French health system in the mid-1980s, when 4,000 people contracted the AIDS virus from blood transfusions. Hundreds later died. Charges were filed against Evin, health minister from 1988 and 1991, by the family of Catherine Aloncle, who died of AIDS in 1991, and the French Association of Transfused Patients. Girard told France Inter radio that the two paragraphs published by Le Parisien were "taken out of context" from a five-page memo outlining the problems of testing blood recipients and providing compensation. Le Parisien also published an interview with a French medical secretary who said she had offered to help identify blood recipients in 1992 at a hospital in the western French city of Nantes. "I went to the personnel director and got a shock. I still remember his response: 'It's out of the question,'" Annick Duperrin recalled. "I got the distinct feeling that his answer wasn't only in regard to my request, but more generally, to any research on such an explosive issue." The newspaper said the hospital later published a small notice about the possible blood contamination in a local paper. Three trials already have been held to determine just who is responsible for the health debacle, but their outcomes have left victims' families angry and frustrated. A special court acquitted former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix on charges of manslaughter in connection with the scandal. Former Health Minister Edmond Herve, Evin's predecessor, was convicted but not given a penalty. http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/0,1080,68770-108815-772346-0,0 0.html DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
