Doctors and officials should not have been charged over infected blood, lawyers say

doi:10.1136/bmj.39363.347338.DB

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David Spurgeon

Quebec

After four doctors and a US drug company were acquitted in Canada last week of criminal charges relating to the distribution of infected blood products, the doctors' lawyers have said that the case should never have been brought. But patients' groups greeted the acquittal with dismay.

The products infected more than 1000 Canadians with HIV and up to 20 000 with hepatitis C. Events dating back more than 20 years have become known as the nation's worst preventable public health disaster.

On 1 October, after an 18 month trial, Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto acquitted Roger Perrault, former national medical director of the Canadian Red Cross Society, John Furesz and …