Iraq's Red Crescent demands $238M blood compensation

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society has issued a request for $238.0 million in damages from two drugmakers, on behalf of 238 Iraqis who allegedly contracted HIV via contaminated blood products. Of the total, 199 are reported to have died of AIDS-related causes.

The law suit argues that subsidiaries of France's Sanofi-Aventis and the USA's Baxter Healthcare supplied the products through subsidiaries, Institut Merieux and Immuno AG (Austria-based), respectively, from 1982-1986 to treat children with hemophilia, the Agence France Presse reports. The IRCS claims that the firms and the Iraq Health Ministry acted negligently. The Ministry has denied the existence of the HIV/AIDS outbreak and the families of infected patients were claimed to have been held in quarantine under the previous regime of Saddam Hussein.

Said Hakki, the IRCS' director, noted that Sanofi offered in November 2005 to settle with victims who were reportedly infected by Merieux products by paying $5,000-$25,000 per person. The IRCS is demanding $1.0 million per HIV-infected patient.