Posted: 9-Mar-2006 << BACK
Haemophilia Society condemns DH review of blood related infections
01 March 2006 HES Magazine
A catalogue of errors and omissions is how Margaret Unwin, chief executive of The Haemophilia Society, has described a Department of Health (DH) review of blood product related infections in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is believed that over this period around 3000 patients with haemophilia who were treated with blood products, were infected with hepatitis C (HCV), and many with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The DH review entitled Self-sufficiency in blood products in England and Wales: a chronology from 1973 to 1991 was undertaken in response to calls from MPs who have suggested that many of these infections could have been avoided had the UK achieved self-sufficiency in blood products (rather than relying on commercial concentrates imported for the US). However, the DH has concluded that procedures during the period were acceptable on the basis of the information that was available at the time. The key conclusions of the review are:
Nobody acted wrongly in the light of the facts that were available to them at the time
Every effort was made by the Government to pursue self sufficiency in blood products during the 1970s and early 1980s
The more serious consequences of hepatitis C only became apparent in 1989 and the development of reliable tests for its recognition in 1991
Tests to devise a procedure to make the hepatitis C virus inactive were developed and introduced as soon as practicable
Self sufficiency in blood products would not have prevented haemophiliacs from being infected with hepatitis C. Even if the UK had been self sufficient, the prevalence of hepatitis C in the donor population would have been enough to spread the virus throughout the pool.
Unwin rejects these findings: The government has already admitted that it has shredded many of the documents that refer to the time period in question, but that still doesnt explain the strange assortment of references they have made in the report ranging from clinical journals to The Sun newspaper. Reading the report which does not have a named author it appears to be an attempt to gloss over the details of the events of the time and even to lay blame at the door of the patients themselves.
Unwin also draws attention to the issue of high risk donations: There is no mention of the use of prison blood taken from convicts in the UK a higher risk group of donors who were more likely to have blood borne viruses that could contaminate entire batches of clotting factor products. Unwin says that the internal review is an attempt by the DH to deflect the call for a much needed wide-ranging public inquiry.
Caroline Flint, Public Health Minister, says: We have great sympathy for those people, and their families, who were infected with HCV and HIV from contaminated blood products in the 1970s and early 80s. The review, based on the available evidence, concludes that clinicians acted in the best interest of their patients in the light of the evidence available at the time. Donor screening for HCV was introduced in the UK in 1991 and the development of this test marked a major advance in technology, which could not have been implemented before this time.
