Red Gold: Tainted Blood

Format: DVD Runtime: 58 Minutes Series: Red Gold

Even after World War II, a continued need for large supplies of blood was made clear by peacetime disasters and the advent of open-heart surgery and transfusions for hemophiliacs. By the 1960s, a new industry boomed as the indigent rushed to sell the one valuable thing they owned: blood. This program traces how commercialization of blood collection in the U.S. led, at one time, to the spread of hepatitis and of a new epidemic called AIDS. Among those commenting are Dr. Donald Francis, a former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who foresaw the AIDS crisis; Dr. Ed Shandbrom, a key figure in developing the first hemophilia medication; and Dr. John Ashworth, a chemist who assisted in devising, with Harvard's Edwin Cohn, a technique to manufacture albumin from blood plasma which saved thousands of lives in World War II.