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Many with transplants getting tested

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- People in the United States, Canada and Europe are being tested after getting a transplant or tissue from a New York City firm.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said that recipients of body parts and tissue from Michael Mastromarino's company, Biomedical Tissue Services Ltd., in New York City, have a small risk of contracting communicable diseases including syphilis, HIV and hepatitis, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.

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Thousands of the patients who received a body part or tissue are in the process of being tested for several diseases, the News said.

Mastromarino, a tissue procurement agent, removed bones, body parts and tissue from cadavers and allegedly sold the parts.

It's alleged that after 95-year-old British broadcaster Alistair Cooke died in his New York City home, his bones were sold for about $7,000 by Mastromarino.

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