(CNSNews.com) - The American Red Cross says it will not publicly release information about what happened to about 1,000 units of suspect blood that were subject to a recall and caused the organization to be fined more than $4 million by the Food and Drug Administration.

One week ago, Cybercast News Service asked the Red Cross whether it had destroyed all 1,000 units of possibly contaminated blood products that it recalled between 2003 and 2006 or whether some of the blood got into the veins of patients.

The reply came almost a week later.

"The Red Cross is not able to release that information," Red Cross spokeswoman Lesly Simmons told Cybercast News Service.

She said "the senior leadership" of the Red Cross had determined that because of "limited financial resources" - i.e., a budget shortfall affecting staffing, it would "take too much" to compile such a report.

The question had been a follow-up to an investigation conducted by Cybercast News Service into action taken by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in February against the blood provider.

Last month, the FDA fined the Red Cross $4.6 million for mishandling or inappropriately releasing possibly contaminated or suspect blood products.

The government agency also cited the Red Cross for failure to "defer" or exclude from its inventory units of blood taken from donors who it later learned had traveled in malaria risk areas, or in areas where there was known Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human form of "mad cow disease"

Further, it fined the Red Cross for failing to properly screen out donors who had repeatedly tested positive for hepatitis or who had not disclosed whether they were HIV-positive.

On March 18, Cybercast News Service reported that the Red Cross either couldn't or wouldn't state whether potentially contaminated blood may have entered the blood supply. Officials would only say that "no adverse reactions" were reported.

At the same time, however, a senior Red Cross executive gave assurances that the organization had "complete traceability" of all its products.

"We know the disposition of all the units," said Eva Quinley, senior vice president for quality and regulatory affairs.

"We know whether the units were transfused, or whether they were destroyed, or whether they expired," she said.

But when asked if such a list was readily available, Quinley said it would have to be developed - and that it "might take awhile" to do so.

On March 20, Cybercast News Service formally asked the Red Cross to provide a disposition list or report however long it may take to develop.

Our request said, "We are not seeking the names of any individuals, or any information which might be covered by . . . privacy rules - simply whether the recalled products were destroyed or transfused."

The Red Cross response came late Friday.

'It shouldn't be this difficult'

The American National Red Cross is not alone in engaging in what appears to be stonewalling.

Last Monday, after two weeks of unsuccessful efforts going through normal channels to try to obtain an interview from the FDA, Cybercast News Service also posed questions directly to one of the government agency's top officials.

But when asked if the FDA knew the disposition of the blood in question, Julie Zawisza, assistant secretary for public affairs at the FDA, replied by e-mail, saying only that an FDA spokeswoman would be contacting Cybercast News Service. To date, that has not occurred.

Finding out whether potentially tainted blood has been transfused into people shouldn't be this difficult, according to Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

When it comes to tracking blood, there are two questions that all blood providers ought to be able to answer, he said.

"One is, 'Did you ship out any blood that turns out to have been contaminated or laced with HIV or malaria or with hepatitis A, B, or C?'" Wolfe told Cybercast News Service. "The second, much more difficult question is: Did anyone get sick from that?"

The first question, he said, is one that all organizations that collect blood can - and should - be able to answer.

"The Red Cross ought to be able to tell you the disposition of blood - whether it was transfused or destroyed or is sitting on the shelves," Wolfe said.

The American National Red Cross, though a volunteer agency, is chartered by Congress and is legally regarded as a part of the federal government and required to carry out certain responsibilities delegated by the federal government.

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