New surgical techniques and the discovery of the efficacy of transfusions to treat hemophiliacs heightened the need for a national blood supply in the post-war years, and by the 1960s, a commercial branch of blood collection was booming in the U.S. Those who flocked to donate blood because of the financial incentive, many of whom were alcoholics and drug users, affected the safety of the blood supply. The result was the presence first of hepatitis then a mysterious new disease called AIDS in some of the blood products provided to surgery patients and hemophiliacs. RED GOLD's third episode devotes itself to this tragic chapter in the story of blood, an era in which the life-sustaining and life-saving substance came to be viewed as a deadly toxin.