BTSB plans to screen patients for HIV

Partners of people who may have received infected blood products through transfusions are not being targeted by a new HIV screening…

Partners of people who may have received infected blood products through transfusions are not being targeted by a new HIV screening programme because the Department of Health has been advised that it is not legally required. The screening programme is to be started by the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) on Monday specifically for the "very small number of patients" who may have been exposed to the risk of HIV infection as a result of blood transfusions or other blood products before the introduction of HIV screening of blood donations in October 1985.

The BTSB said yesterday it would have been up to the Department of Health to decide to include partners in a testing programme, or to further extend it to include anybody who felt they may have contracted the virus. Up to 50,000 people may come forward, and it is believed an extension of the programme would not increase the figures. Dr Emer Lawlor, who runs the newly-established HIV and hepatitis C unit at the BTSB, said partners were not being asked to come forward because the risk was "extremely low", a one in five million chance of infection. The BTSB's responsibility was to blood transfusion recipients, she said.

Last night Ms Rosemary Daly, of the Irish Haemophilia Society, said the society had three cases where a person who received an infected blood product had infected their partner. "It is actually an exceptionally low figure considering there was no availability of condoms in 1985," she said.

At a briefing with the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, yesterday, an official from his Department said legal advice was that "the duty of care owing to people who received blood and blood products has been discharged". Given the exceptionally small risks involved, he said, there appeared no reason to include partners of people who received transfusions.

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The programme will cost up to £1 million. Mr Cowen said cost had not been a factor in deciding to limit the programme. If a recipient were to test positive their partner would immediately be counselled and offered testing.

Dr Lawlor said the "key message" from the BTSB was that the risk of infection as a result of transfusion was "very remote". "This service is being carried out by the BTSB out of an abundance of caution. We urge people who are concerned, having read the public information announcements, to contact their own GP, who will be able to counsel them and carry out the HIV test if necessary," she said.

According to the information programme, freeze-dried plasma, which has a shelf life of up to five years, may not have been recalled from hospitals in the Munster region. This extends the possible risk period to 1990.

The BTSB's medical director, Dr William Murphy, said the BTSB was concerned that blood donation levels would be maintained. He said donations had decreased during the recent controversies surrounding the BTSB and he wished to stress the need for people to continue to donate to ensure there was an adequate blood supply.