BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet)-- Over a dozen patients after receiving tissue transplants were tested positive for germs that cause AIDS, hepatitis or syphilis, according to the U.S. court records Friday.

    Those people claimed they caught deadly viruses and germs from body parts stolen from corpses.

    Even though some hundreds of people have so far tested negative for any infectious diseases, many patients who received biomedical products now wonder if their health is at risk.

    One famous case involved the corpse of Alistair Cooke, host of the PBS. He died of cancer at age 95, and his leg bones were shipped to tissue processors for medical use.

    A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, is accused of failing to gain consent to take bones, skin and other tissue from corpses. At least 8,000 people received BTS tissue, according to one of the tissue distributors.

    Over the past 19 years, more than 16,800 families in the U.S. have claimed in lawsuits that body parts of family members were stolen for profit.

    There are 2,089 tissue banks that are overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency performed 285 inspections in fiscal year 2004 and 270 inspections during 2005.

    The distribution of organs intended for transplant is facilitated by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, established under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984.

    While doctors have been recommended by the FDA to inform the patients that the tissue may be suspect, they are not required by law to let patients know in U.S. Enditem

    (Agencies)