Sir, - I refer to your news story "Group says hepatitis victims died before cases could be beard" (November 5th) and, in particular, the reference to an Irish Medical News lead story which the previous day revealed that the Blood Transfusion Service Board released a key batch of anti D in the late 1970s, which it had earlier - suspended, after women who had received the product developed a hepatitis infection.
In your report, you quote an unidentified Blood Bank source as saying there was nothing new in our story and claiming also, that this information was already contained in the findings of the 1995 Expert Group report, chaired by Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien. The willingness to pour cold water over the Irish Medical News story, and carry the inaccurate claim by the BTSB, is disappointing. Was the BTSB "source" not asked to identify where exactly in the Expert Group report this so called old" information was contained? I, and most of those who have had an interest in this controversy since it first broke in February 1994, have carefully read the Expert Group report. Nowhere is it stated that the BTSB released this infected batch, identified by the Medical News as Batch 245, after suspending it, when "Donor X" to the batch and recipients showed signs of a hepatitis infection.
The Expert Group report does note that the BTSB stopped taking "Donor X" plasma to make antiD for a short time, after she showed signs of jaundice. That is not the same as manufacturing a batch of anti D from her plasma just before she became ill, suspending the issue of the batch, and then later releasing it for administration to patients. Why did the BTSB not discard the batch, as a precautionary measure, after "Donor X" had showed signs of illness?
This new information has, in fact, come to light as a result of civil actions and the discovery of documents at Pelican House. Is it not in the Expert Group report - the group could only base its findings on what the Blood Bank and others told it.
There is a certain deja vu about claims over what is and is not in the Expert Group report. Not so long ago, there were claims in the Dail by the Junior Health Minister, Brian O'Shea, that the Expert Group was aware that "Donor X" had infectious hepatitis. This, despite the clear evidence from the report and the conclusion that she was believed to have had jaundice of unknown origin. (See Expert Group report page 103, para 6.10). It was the revelation in a "missing file" uncovered in March 1996, through the heroic efforts of the late Brigid McCole, that showed "Donor X" had infectious hepatitis at the time.
The continuing failure on the part of some Blood Bank officials, politicians and others to recognise the truth, at this stage in the controversy, is in itself most disturbing. - Yours, etc.
Chief reporter, Irish Medical News,
Eglinton Terrace,
Dundrum, Dublin 14.