Advances and dilemmas in recombinant blood products

The need to find safer blood products escalated in July 1982 with the first report of AIDS in a person with hemophilia. By 1985, approximately 10,000 people with hemophilia were infected with HIV and manufacturers were providing products that had been treated for viral inactivation. Approximately 8000 people with hemophilia have died in the AIDS epidemic, and approximately 2172 are surviving with HIV chronicity. The number of deaths are an enormous loss in a tightly knit and highly organized hemophiliac community whose activism brought about the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Act. These 8000 lives will not be forgotten. The search for safer products, such as recombinant DNA technology products, is ongoing. Of persons using recombinant products in the United States, 61.3% have hemophilia A and 54.8% have hemophilia B. To meet the coagulation needs of the hemophilia population, it can be expected that innovative delivery models will emerge in the United States and globally.