The blood conspiracy

It is 1993. A frightening, never-before-seen "super strain" of the AIDS virus - unimaginably aggressive and resistant to nearly all treatments - has been found in New York City, alarmed health officials. A gay, 40-something city man recently diagnosed with the new virulent strain is believed to be the first known case in the world. The most striking characteristic of the strain is that full-blown AIDS sets in with lightning speed after HIV infection - as quick as two to three months, in contrast to the nine-to 10-year lag that is normally the case when a victim is untreated. Millions of hepatitis infections and tens of thousands of AIDS infections have been given to Americans by a blood supply they were assured was safe. The Swain family's high-risk behavior for contracting AIDS was believing safe-blood propaganda. Two family members received AIDS-tainted transfusions and a third member was infected because of a self-serving cover-up by one of the blood banks. Author Joleen Swain Ottosen could have stopped after telling this chilling and deadly story of what government, blood banks and doctors did to her family. But she did not. Instead, she empowers the reader with information that was not made available at the time of her family's transfusions. The consumer section of this book outlines a blood users guide which, in a very clear, step-by-step fashion, shows the reader how to minimize one's chances of getting transfusion-associated disease.