Tainted blood victims 'were not informed'

Lorna Martin, Scotland editor
Sunday April 30, 2006

Observer

Concerns about Britain's contaminated blood scandal escalated
yesterday after it emerged that thousands of people who were infected
with hepatitis C have still not been informed.
The Observer has obtained evidence from solicitors representing scores
of victims which appears to confirm claims that efforts to trace those
infected with the deadly virus from transfusions and blood products
were 'restrictive, passive and inadequate'. It has also emerged that
no efforts were made to contact relatives of those who died as a
result of the disaster despite the fact they could have unknowingly
passed it on. The virus can lie dormant for over 20 years, but then
lead to severe liver damage and cancer.

Solicitors acting for some of the 30,000 people in the UK believed to
have been infected with hepatitis C by contaminated blood and products
during the 1980s said only about 15 per cent had been contacted as
part of the official 'lookback' programme.

'Nearly every week I receive clients who inform me that they have just
found out, usually because of incidental treatment, that they have
hepatitis C,' said Frank Maguire, a legal adviser for the Haemophilia
Forum.

Routine donor screening began in 1991 and a two-year 'look back'
exercise began four years later to trace those infected. But it
focused on those who returned to the blood transfusion service.
Charles Gore, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: 'It is
absolutely appalling that health and government officials are
deliberately not doing anything about this and are deliberately
letting people die. It is a major public health issue.'

In another development, The Observer has seen documents which reveal
panic and chaos in the transfusion service as the scale of
contamination emerged. In a letter of May 1991, the director of the
transfusion service in Newcastle said that since the ability to test
for hepatitis C was available it would be 'indefensible' not to
introduce it immediately. In a response, another regional director
stated that such 'unilateral action is both disgraceful and
mischievous'.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said there was great sympathy for
people who were infected with hep C and HIV from contaminated blood
during the 1970s and 1980s. Those patients who were considered to be
most at risk were counselled, offered testing and referred for further
assessment. She added: 'It is our belief that everything was done to
identify and trace patients who had received blood before September
1991.'

In Scotland, Health Minister Andy Kerr is still considering calls from
the influential health committee to hold an independent inquiry into
the scandal.