FOUR of the 10 missing units of potentially HIV-contaminated blood have now been traced by two health boards, one by the North Western and three by the Western Health Board.
Asked why the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, did not have this information when he spoke in the Dail on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Blood Transfusion Service Board said the checking was a complicated process.
"The board would fax over the product numbers. A verification process is under way. The BTSB won't be saying anything about it until Friday," he said.
Mr Eamonn Hannon, CEO of the Western Health Board, told The Irish Times yesterday that three suspect units, issued by the BTSB between 1981 and 1985, had been traced to University College Hospital in Galway.
One was administered to a patient that day. The patient was seriously ill and "of very advanced years" and died the same day. The death was clearly unrelated to the blood transfusion.
A second unit went to the orthopaedic unit in Merlin Park Hospital, where it was administered to a young orthopaedic patient. He is "alive and well". As the blood was given over 13 years ago, and the incubation period for HIV contracted through blood transfusion is between 10 and 12 years, it is unlikely he has contracted the virus.
He has been informed he was given the blood and is receiving counselling, according to Mr Hannon. "There is no proof it was contaminated and no proof the young man has HIV," he said.
The third unit was sent to what was then Calvary Hospital, run by the Little Company of Mary. The hospital was sold to a private conglomerate in 1985, and is now Galvia Hospital. The nuns who used to run it have been asked to trace the unit of blood, Mr Hannon said.
Ms Kate Gleeson, assistant matron of Mount Carmel Hospital in Dublin run by the same order, told The Irish Times that all patients' records for Cal vary remained in Galvia Hospital. However, Mr Gerry Burke, CEO of Galvia Hospital, said they were not there, and he did not know where they were.
Mr Hannon said a search had been carried out in the county hospital in Roscommon, where no suspect unit was found. The search was still going on in Castlebar General Hospital, but it was staking some time as it was a manual search.
Meanwhile, the North Western Health Board has confirmed that its look-back is complete, and one unit of the suspect blood was traced. It was administered to two patients, who have been contacted and the follow-on arrangements concerning testing have been put in place. Both patients are well, the board said.