K9APE’s Bookshelf

 

Blood – An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce

by Douglas Starr (ISBN: 0-679-41875-X)

 

The year was 1667 and the place was a small village near Paris where a madman, Antoine Mauroy, was being attended by one of the king’s own physicians – Jean-Baptiste Denis.  Dr. Denis transfused blood from a lamb into Mauroy’s vein with the expectation that the blood from this gentle animal would allay Mauroy’s violent symptoms.  And it worked!

 

To learn how it worked and its consequences, you will have to read Blood – An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce by Douglas Starr.  Starr is Associate Professor of Journalism at Boston University who specializes in writing on the environment, medicine and science.  His book is the basis for the PBS four-part series Blood broadcast by WTTW.

 

Transfusion of blood did not become an established medical practice until the 20th century with technology pioneered by Dr. Charles Drew (a Negro physician).  When it did, it transformed from a medical curiosity to big business, which Starr describes with parallels to the growth of the petroleum industry.  Both start with a natural resource that is refined or fractionated to obtain valuable derivates.

 

Blood is a chronology of interactions between the military, science, pharmaceutical companies and charities.  It is a story of how each of these both cooperate and fight each other for dominance over the world’s blood supplies and the profits (yes, even charities fight for profits) to be made from a process that begins with donation.  It is also a chronology of success followed by failure as advances in blood technology led to treatments for disorders such as hemophilia that later spread hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

 

Blood also describes the roll that blood served in our fighting World II.  The British quickly organized a volunteer donor system that provided whole blood to its troops.  Because blood then had a short shelf life, the United States relied on plasma until the Washington military bureaucracy was forced to recognize that whole blood was also necessary.

 

The British had one blood supply during WWII and used it with great effect.  The Americans had two; one from white donors and the other from black donors, which lasted well beyond the war despite clear evidence that there was no difference between the two (remember Dr. Drew).  The Germans had only one – from Aryans.  Further, some of their hematologists were unavailable because they were Jewish and had either emigrated or were in concentration camps.  The Russians retrieved some blood from corpses.  The Japanese only used arm-to-arm transfusions at the front.

 

I found the most interesting and disturbing part of the book to be Starr’s analysis of the cover-up that started once the blood industry learned that blood drawn from paid donors (e.g. skid row) and prisoners was likely to cause hepatitis (and later HIV/AIDS) in patients.  National pride, arrogance, malfeasance and political correctness all contributed to failures of both the blood industry and governments to adopt ‘best science’ to keep our blood supply safe and pure.

 

Almost as interesting is are the battles between the Red Cross and its charitable competitors –especially in the United States–­­ for control of donors and profits.  Another confrontation is that between hemophiliacs and National Hemophilia Foundation over the HIV/AIDS scandal.  (For more on AIDS, I suggest Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health by Lauri Garrett - ISBN: 0786884401).

 

In conclusion, Blood is an excellent history of blood and its myths, realities and technology that deserves your study.

 

 

©2002, Sheldon L. Epstein, K9APE

15 JUL 2002