Blood board denies cover up over hepatitis

THE chief executive of the Blood Transfusion Service Board has denied that it "covered up" evidence that a plasma donor had infective hepatitis in 1976.

Mr Liam Dunbar told the Dail Committee on Public Accounts that the board reacted immediately when it discovered a file on the donor during a final check of its records.

An expert group, which published a report last year on the contamination of at least 700 women with Hepatitis C through blood products, was told by the board that the donor "became jaundiced" as a result of "environmental factors".

But yesterday Mr Dunbar said that the board later decided to have "one last trawl" of its records. It came across a file dated 1977, which was unsigned. "As we turned the pages, suddenly one of the records said infective hepatitis - anti-D quantification'," he said. The daily reference to infective hepatitis lasted for two weeks. "Unfortunately, the doctor in charge of this exercise died eight years ago and no one can give an explanation of why he kept the files."

Last month, it was claimed in the High Court that the board had used plasma in 1976 and 1977 from a female patient whom it knew had been diagnosed as suffering from infective hepatitis.

Positive Action, the group representing the women infected with Hepatitis C contained in batches of Anti D immunoglobulin, maintains that a diagnosis of infective hepatitis is far more serious than one of jaundice.

Last night, the organisation said the revelation that the file had not been shown to the expert group lent further weight to its call for a full judicial inquiry.

Mr Dunbar warned the board could never guarantee 100 per cent safety for its blood products. This was because blood was a "biological" product.

So far, 323 applications for compensation have been made to the tribunal established by the Department of Health after it was discovered that Hepatitis C was transmitted through blood plasma manufactured by the board, a Department official, Mr Gerry Coffey, told the committee.

Mr Coffey said that the tribunal had heard 43 cases, but expected to deal with several hundred more. In addition about 400 people were seeking legal redress through the courts.

The board has started legal proceedings against its insurers, seeking compensation for the claims it now faces, Mr Dunbar said. He told Mr Tommy Broughan (Labour) it was confident of winning these cases. However, the money which could be recovered would only be a fraction of the £60 million put aside by the Government.

Mr Broughan: "So the bottom line is that we're not covered."

Mr Dunbar: "Yes."

The board was now "searching the markets" for a new insurer. However, many national transfusion agencies could not get cover. "Potential insurers are reluctant to offer cover, on the basis that they are entering the unknown. In two years' time, a new virus could be discovered."

Mr Eric Byrne (Democratic Left) said many people hit by this "human tragedy", who were now going through a "living hell" were saying that it was very hard to get information from the board.

He asked Mr Duncan, who assumed his present post after the Hepatitis C scandal broke in 1994, whether he was confident he was getting the information he needed. Mr Dunbar said he was.

The committee was told that the board had to write off £222,000 in 1994 after an Austrian company refused to accept Irish plasma because it had not been subjected to a screening test for liver disease. Additional write offs of about £255,000 were expected for 1995.