Summary: Kudos
to veteran Kansas City Star investigative reporter Karen Dillon for her two-part
series on Hepatitis C contaminating the blood supply that has led to a $1
billion settlement for victims. A University of Missouri (Columbia)
graduate and 15-year Star employee, Dillon has won numerous awards for her
reporting, including Harvard University's Goldsmith Prize in 2000 for
investigative reporting.
Trivia: While working as a reporter at the Sarasota
Herald-Tribune in 1991 Dillon broke the story regarding Pee-wee Herman's
(Paul Reubens) exposure arrest...
Link
to original series:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/special_packages/hepatitis/
Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006
Hepatitis C award linked to Star
The newspaper’s series is cited as a
reason for a Canadian settlement.
By KAREN DILLON
The Kansas City Star
A $1 billion settlement for about 5,500 Canadians with Hepatitis C was awarded
in part because of evidence uncovered by The Kansas City Star, according to the
lead plaintiff.
The Star’s series, published in 2003, revealed that the Red Cross and Canadian
and U.S. officials knew there was a test that would help prevent Hepatitis C
from contaminating the blood supply in 1981.
But Canada did not begin testing its blood supply for Hepatitis C until the
early 1990s.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the compensation package last week at a
news conference in Ottawa, ending an eight-year legal battle for Canadian
Hepatitis C victims.
The package covers the 5,500 Hepatitis C victims or the estates of those who
have died. The payments will range from $30,000 to $300,000, depending on the
severity of the illness, which can vary widely.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can severely damage the liver.
Michael McCarthy, the lead plaintiff who contracted Hepatitis C in a blood
transfusion in 1984, said documents obtained by The Star made the evidence
irrefutable.
“That was gold, those documents,” said McCarthy who is past vice president of
the Canadian Hemophilia Society. “The government’s position was not sustainable
based on the emerging facts that reliable tests were available. The Kansas City
Star played a prominent role in demonstrating those scientific facts.”
For decades, the Hepatitis C virus had infected the blood supplies of Canada and
the U.S. In the mid 1970s, it was believed that more than 300,000 or about 10
percent of all transfusion patients in the U.S. were being infected with the
virus each year.
The Star found documents that showed in 1981 the nation’s top blood experts
concluded that U.S. blood collection agencies should begin testing. But the test
was delayed here until 1986, and in Canada until the early 1990s.
