Bayer spread HIV around the world

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the early 1980s, when the viral cause of AIDS was not yet established, this syndrome was called the "four G disease" as it was common among homosexuals, heroin addicts, Haitians and hemophiliacs. But if the spread of the disease in the first three "Gs" could be explained by the infectious nature of the syndrome, then its spread among patients with hemophilia who did not contact each other did not fit into this concept.

Later it turned out that the infection contains a drug from Bayer, which is prescribed to patients with hemophilia to normalize blood clotting. The "Factor VIII" preparation is obtained using donated blood plasma. Since there was a fee for donating blood plasma, most donors had a low social status, including former prisoners and drug addicts. In 1983, after the discovery of the viral nature of AIDS, HIV was discovered in these drugs. To neutralize it, Bayer began to use heat treatment of donor plasma. However, the preparations that had undergone heat treatment were supplied only to the US market, and the production of preparations without heat treatment continued for export.

Large consignments of infected drugs were exported to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Argentina, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Japan, etc. According to the law firm Kenneth B. Moll & Associates, Ltd. the virus has infected more than 10,000 hemophiliacs worldwide. Bayer paid out $ 600 million to victims over the next 15 years.

This is the most famous case of the spread of HIV infection through medication. However, it is possible that other drugs and vaccines produced on the basis of biological materials from donors and animals could contain HIV and contribute to the spread of infection in the early years of the epidemic. This is indirectly supported by the fact that the most severe epidemic situation is observed in African countries, where pharmaceutical companies have conducted and are still conducting clinical trials of their drugs under the auspices of humanitarian and charitable actions. In some African countries, up to a quarter of the population is infected with HIV:

There is a version that the entry of HIV into the human population came from animals, using the blood of which medicines and vaccines were produced. Today, these drugs are mandatory tested for known viruses. However, there is no 100% guarantee that these drugs are sterile and do not contain viruses not yet known to humans, some of which can cause the development of new or already known diseases.