Health Canada is tracking down the recipients of human tissue products provided by a U.S. biomedical company following allegations the company altered organ donor cards and other legal documents to obtain tissues from corpses at New York area funeral homes.
Tissue donors may not have met Health Canada donor eligibility requirements and may not have been properly screened for certain infectious diseases, says Nathalie Lalonde, the Health Canada spokesperson. Last week Health Canada issued a warning transplant patients may have received tainted human tissue.
The tissue products were from Biomedical Tissue Services, a New Jersey based firm. Health Canada estimates that approximately 300 of these potentially tainted tissue products have been imported to Canada.
“The distribution lists from the distributors indicates that these products have been distributed mostly throughout Canada. The distribution list is still being updated and it is not final yet,” says Lalonde.
The imported Biomedical products were mainly used in dental or orthopedic transplants. Some of the diseases that could be caused by tainted tissues include HIV, Hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and other viral diseases. However, Canadian officials say that no known adverse events from these products have been reported in Canada or the United States.
Health Canada officials have asked the distributors of the tissues to notify all hospitals, physicians, and dentists so that they in turn contact the patients who have received these tissues.
Once identified, the recipients of the tissue products would be tested for infectious diseases.
“The risk from use of these products is considered to be low, as tissues are routinely processed using methods that help to reduce the risk of infectious disease. However, the actual infectious risk is unknown,” says Lalonde.
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