Stolen Blood

[JD]

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060405.wxbcblood05/BNStory/National/home">www.theglobeandmail.com/s...ional/home</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Stolen blood a mystery for B.C. police, hospital officials <br>HIV-positive plasma stolen in Vancouver <br><br>MARK HUME <br><br>From Wednesday's Globe and Mail<br><br>Vancouver — If ever a crime was committed in cold blood it was the theft at St. Paul's Hospital on the weekend, when someone got past security guards, went up to the sixth floor and broke into a locked freezer to steal 19 vials of HIV-positive plasma.<br><br>The big question is: Why?<br><br>Vancouver police and medical authorities say they are baffled by the theft because the potentially dangerous blood samples have no value to anyone, other than the patients to whom the blood belongs, and their doctors.<br>"Why would somebody do this? The question haunts us as much as anybody . . . we don't have an answer to that right now," Vancouver Police Department Constable Tim Fanning said yesterday.<br><br>"We have no motive for the theft and no suspects. The vials were marked with a patient's name, an identification number and the lettering HIV-VL. If anyone has any information as to where these vials may be, they are asked to contact the police. Just call 911," he said.<br><br>The vials contain a form of blood known as plasma, which is a clear liquid because the red and white blood cells have been stripped from it.<br><br>In crowded and busy St. Paul's Hospital, the plasma was stored in a padlocked freezer, in a hallway just outside British Columbia's provincial virology lab. In the central, urban facility, which is located on a busy street and near drug-treatment centres, four security guards patrol the hallways around the clock. But it's a big complex and there is a constant flow of patients, visitors and staff.<br><br>In a press conference at the Vancouver Police Department, Akber Mithani, vice-president of medical affairs at St. Paul's Hospital, said security has been beefed up in recent years because of concerns about intruders.<br><br>Now the virology lab has been put under constant surveillance.<br><br>"The organization now has put in 24-hour security in that lab, 24/7 security following this particular theft . . . we want to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again," Dr. Mithani said.<br><br>He said he could think of no motive for the theft.<br>"This sort of thing has never happened in the past. We have never had any type of a break-in of this nature at St. Paul's, and as far as why somebody would do this, it's really speculation," he said.<br><br>The 19 vials were the only items taken from the freezer, which contained other blood samples and medical materials.<br><br>"From the evidence that I have I think these were just vials [taken at random]," Dr. Mithani said.<br><br>He said the HIV virus in the plasma will remain active for 72 hours without proper refrigeration, but it does not pose a threat to anyone as long as the vials remain sealed and the substance isn't injected.<br><br>"This is not something that is airborne or you can just contract by handling the vials themselves. You need to have this substance injected into the bloodstream if you are going to have any danger . . . as far as danger to the public is concerned, in my opinion it's minimum. Unless somebody takes those vials, and physically introduces them into the bloodstream of another individual, it's reasonably safe."<br><br>It wasn't immediately known how many individual patients had samples in the batch of 19 stolen vials, but Dr. Mithani said the hospital is currently identifying and contacting them. <br><br>Asked what the hospital was going to tell the patients, Dr. Mithani replied: "I think that every patient is different, so we have to work with the patients' primary care physician . . . obviously we have to give them the facts, and the facts are that these vials were stolen. We hope that we'll be able to retrieve them."<br><br>Dr. Mithani urged anyone finding the vials to immediately contact the authorities. "The first thing they should do is to call the police. And then the police will take it from there. I would advise . . . don't touch them, don't do anything. Call 911," he said.<br><br>The plasma in the vials are what doctors call viral loads. They had been tested and identified as HIV-positive and were being held for possible future testing.<br><br>Dr. Mithani said he thought that all of the patients whose blood was in the vials would have already learned from their doctor that they were HIV-positive.<br> <p></p><i></i>