A BRIEF AND SELECTIVE HISTORY OF BLOOD:
by Janet Koenig

1410 BC "For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off."Leviticus 17.14" (Holy Bible, King James version)

300 BC Nei Jing or Chinese Book of Medicine first describes blood circulation.

AD 1 Blood of slain gladiators is popular drink of Roman warriors.

AD 130-200 Galen of Pergamum, Greek physician, originates belief held in Europe until 1200s that blood passes through tiny pores from heart's right to left ventricle.

AD 900 Anglo-Saxons and Druids use leeches for bloodletting.

1210-1280 Ibn Al-Nafis, Islamic physician, possibly discovers circulation long before Harvey.

1490 The dying Pope Innocent VIII has blood of 3 young boys fed to him—all 4 die; Leonardo Da Vinci makes exquisite drawings of heart.

1628 William Harvey, England, discovers blood circulation disproving Galen's theory; proves that "pumplike" heart pushes blood mechanically, and that heart is at center of circulatory system.

1665 Dr Richard Lower performs first reported successful blood transfusion from animal to animal.

1667 Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denis performs first animal to human transfusion.

1815 Thomas Jefferson, develops complex mathematical equations to determine racial purity.

1818 British obstetrician, James Blundell, performs first successful transfusion of human blood.

1833 French doctors import 41.5 million leeches; bloodletting ends in 1920s

1850-1900 Hundreds of transfusions are performed in Europe; more than half are fatal.

1900 Dr Karl Landsteiner discovers A, B, O blood groups necessary for successful transfusions

1915 Discovery of anticoagulant sodium citrate and refrigeration makes storage of blood possible.

1916 British under Oswald Robertson establish first blood depot during World War I

1921 First blood donor pool of tested volunteers organized by British Red Cross.

1932 The first blood bank is established in a Leningrad, USSR hospital.

1932 Public Health Service (later named Centers for Disease Control) carries out Tuskegee study of 400 African-American men with syphilis, informs men they had "bad blood" rather than syphilis and withholds medical treatment until 1972 when story becomes public.

1935 Nazi law is passed to "protect" German blood and German honor.

1937 Dr. Bernard Fantus of Cook County Hospital, Chicago, establishes the first hospital blood bank and coins the term "blood bank."

1939 Wartime blood banking is first effectively practiced by anti-Franco forces in Spanish Civil War.

1939 Dr. Philip Levine and Dr. Alex Wiener discover Rh blood group.

1939 Dr. John Elliot discovers the importance of plasma (the liquid medium of blood) and urges it be sent to warfront.

1940 Dr. Charles Drew heads Blood for Britain campaign in World War II to become first to develop antiseptic, industrial processing of plasma; helps coordinate blood banking program run by American Red Cross but cannot gain membership in American Medical Association because he is African-American.

1940 Dr. Edwin Cohn develops fractionation, the process of breaking down plasma into components and products.

1941 US War Department calls for segregation of "black" and "white" blood.

1945 The infamous plutonium injection experiments begin; physicians working with the Manhattan Project and the Department of Energy conduct secret experiments in which 18 unknowing patients are injected with plutonium and their blood regularly tested for signs of its effects; the experiments remain secret until 1993. (Welsome)

1947 AABB (American Association of Blood Banks) opens in competition with American Red Cross.

1947 American Red Cross extends blood banking to civilian population.

1951 The AABB Clearinghouse (now the National Blood Exchange) is established to provide a centralized system for exchanging blood among blood banks.

1960s Dr. Austin R. Stough sets up plasma centers in prisons in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama to supply 1/4 of nation's "hyperimmune gamma globulin;" hepatitis soon spreads through prisons and through plasma transfusions.

1960s/70s Drug companies and independents open poorly regulated plasma centers in poor neighborhoods whose paid donors may have high incidence of hepatitis.

1966 Baxter Corp. introduces the first commercially produced clotting factor, Factor VIII concentrate, to treat hemophilia.

1970 The 1/32 Louisiana Blood Law is upheld making "1/32 negro blood" the dividing line between black and white.

1971 Hepatitis B testing of donated blood begins.

1972 Centers for Disease Control estimates hepatitis deaths at 3,500 per year while many doctors put the figure at 10 times higher.

1973/4 The National Blood Policy ends commercial blood banks and payments for blood donation in US.

1977 Plasma centers open in Managua, Nicaragua; donors paid little; plasma companies and Somoza regime reap huge profits.

1983 The 1/32 Louisiana Blood Law is repealed.

1985 First blood screening text for HIV begins.

1988 The New York City Health Department begins first the first government-sponsored needle exchange in the country, rescinded in 1990, restored by 1992; ban on federal funding of needle exchange continues.

1990s Blood screening tests for HIV are improved.

1992 After public outcry, the National Institute of Mental Health halts its "violence initiative," a program funding scientific research for possible genetic links to violence among inner city youth.

1992 Trial of heads of French National Blood Transfusion Center for allowing HIV contaminated blood products to continue to circulate.

1993 Arkansas prison system blood donation program, the last still in operation since the late 80s, closes.

1995 Fed. establishes Blood Safety Committee, FDA makes Blood Products Advisors Committee more vigilant.

1997 Blood product makers agree to pay $100,000 to each of 6,200 hemophiliacs infected with HIV by HIV tainted clotting factor (probably 1/2 of US hemophilia pop. or 10,000 infected); in same period, plasma products infect hundreds of thousands with Hepatitis C .

1998 Baxter Corp.'s hemoglobin therapeutic, or "blood substitute" becomes the first "artificial blood" product to receive "trauma protocol" clearance by the U.S. Food &Drug Administration.

1998 World wide blood market: 1 barrel of crude oil is about $13 (today $28); an equivalent volume of blood would be more than $20,000. Blood retails for about $150 to $200 per unit; 91.6 million pints are collected annually world wide; combined value of whole blood plus plasma products equals around $18.5 billion (Starr, p. 357)

1999 New Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (mad cow) is not yet discovered to spread through transfusion but until blood test available, FDA prohibits blood donation by anyone who has resided in United Kingdom for six months or more from 1980-1996.

1999 70% of nation's blood suppliers under consent decree of Federal injunction to comply and submit to inspection by FDA.