Abstract

The unintentional contamination of haemophilia patients with HIV in the early 1980s raised serious questions about the safety of blood product supplies worldwide. The events initiated a cascade of consequences for both infected patients and the national health systems of many countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lawsuits have been filed in the courts mostly in developed countries, leading to the establishment of some kind of reimbursement programme for haemophilia patients who acquired viral infections. In the late 1990s the courts ordered the Iranian Ministry of Health, in addition to providing free care with the latest treatments, to pay compensation to the haemophilia patients. The adverse consequences of these events on the equitable distribution of resources in the Iranian health care system are discussed in this paper.