Posts
The US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has sent a warning letter to Dr. Martin Balin, a Chicago fertility
doctor, citing his clinic’s failure to meet standards for screening egg donors
for STDs. On November 6, the FDA posted the letter to Dr. Balin on their
website. FDA spokesperson Lisa Misevicz noted that nobody got sick, but the
FDA’s goal is to “prevent anyone from becoming sick in the future.” The FDA
wrote the letter after inspecting Balin’s Chicago office during June 20 through
Aug. 17, 2012. During that time, an investigator found “significant deviations”
from required screenings for egg donors.
The FDA inspects clinics that handle
human tissue, including donated eggs, which can be used in assisting infertile
couples to conceive. Females are usually paid to provide the eggs, which are
retrieved and fertilized. The subsequent embryos are implanted in a recipient’s
uterus. The FDA letter noted that Dr. Balin’s office did not meet the screening
standards for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV.
Balin told the Associated Press on
November 7 that he has addressed the FDA’s concerns. He stated, “I think the
testing was not clearly the way they wanted it.” Balin declared that the women
receiving the donated eggs were safe because they took required preventive
antibiotics. “Patients were always safe, that I can tell you,” explained Balin.
He added that a lab that ran the wrong HIV test used another test instead. Sean
Tipton, spokesman for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, noted
that it is imperative to screen egg donors and that his organization’s standards
are the same as those of the FDA. David Ball, president of the Society for
Assisted Reproductive Technology and lab director of Seattle Reproductive
Medicine, declared that, “There’s never been a reported case of any kind of
disease transmission from egg donation. He added that screening is “a federal
mandate, so we have to follow it.”
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
