[joglynne]

The problem was that the USA did not screen the donors of the blood they obtained. Giving blood was one of the ways the poor, unemployed and homeless managed to obtain money in the States and the Pharmaceutical Companies were more interested in making a profit rather than actually checking that the blood they paid for came from healthy donors. It was great that they had found a way to treat Haemophilia but they showed themselves to be less than prudent when it came to sourcing the basic ingredient.

Prior to refined Clotting factors being made available Haemophiliacs were only expected, at the most, to live into their 20/30s and relied upon receiving plasma alone to treat bleeds. To get enough to help them meant that a lot of plasma had to be obtained. So although bleeding was life threatening it was not always an immediate death sentence.