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Focus on Haemosexual I was injected with HIV at the age of 12 By Mark Ward Back in the dark ages of the early 1970’s I was diagnosed with severe haemophilia. It’s a rare genetic blood disorder which prevents the body’s natural blood clotting protein, Factor VIII, from being produced. We all suffer bumps and cuts sometimes in everyday life, but if you are haemophiliac, the bleeding does not stop. This can be life-threatening in some situations. The treatment used to control my bleeding episodes used products made from whole blood. Unfortunately, during the 1970s and 80s the mega rich pharmaceutical companies did not care where they got the blood from. In the USA they paid vulnerable and desperate people to sell their blood. Drug addicts, prostitutes and prisoners were frequently used. They would even wait in mobile blood transfusion trucks outside gay saunas or bath houses, in cities like San Francisco and New York, then offer the guys money to sell their blood. There were even cases of using blood from dead bodies. All the blood gathered from the various sources was mixed together in huge vats and processed to separate it into different components, like Factor VIII. This would be freeze-dried, bottled and shipped around the world and then injected straight into the veins of babies, children, teenagers - in fact anybody who required these blood products. Winter 2016 | <strong>Ambulance</strong>today The dangers of viruses, such as hepatitis, were known and governments, including the United Kingdom, were warned of these infection risks. But even warnings from the World Health Organization were ignored. At that time there were approximately 5,000 haemophiliacs in the UK and almost all were infected with Hepatitis C and 1249 infected with HIV. I was told I’d be dead by 18 I was given my first injection of the deadly contaminated Factor VIII in the middle of the night, against my parents’ wishes, in 1976. By the age of 10, I had been infected with millions of pathogens, multiple strains of various contaminants including hepatitis viruses A, B, C, and G. Then at the age of 12, I was infected, almost on a daily basis with treatment contaminated with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. I was told at the age of 14, I probably would not leave school, certainly not living long enough to see my 18th birthday. The entire world was full of hatred towards anyone with HIV, regardless of their infection circumstances. Across the USA families feared for their lives, little boys were treated worse than lepers, even having their homes set on fire. They were referred to as members of the “4H Club” (Heroin addicts, Homosexuals, Haemophiliac’s and Haitian’s). Ryan White, an infected American haemophiliac, became famous for standing up to his abusers, but sadly lost his fight for life aged just 18. The UK, was no different. We lived in fear of the ‘Gay Plague’ as the British media named it and the government did nothing to protect us. Many lives were destroyed due to the stigma of AIDS. I’d like you to imagine what it was like growing up with all that terror, hatred, stigma and discrimination. Still being injected with the deadly treatment. Friends dying, used for research by doctors like laboratory rats. Then on top of that realizing you are not just different from ‘normal’ people because of your disability but you are also gay. That’s what happened to me. Anti-gay prejudice And after more than 2,000 haemophiliacs died, with thousands more ‘superinfected,’ homosexuality is still a taboo subject in the haemophilia world today. In most countries, including the UK, no information or support is offered to people with a bleeding disorder who identify as LGBT. The CEO of one national haemophilia society in Europe told me: ‘We have not identified any gay haemophiliacs, therefore we do not need to provide information.’ Winter 2014 | <strong>Ambulance</strong>today3 53
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