Ambulance

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 | Ambulancetoday
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 | Ambulancetoday3 53