Health chiefs vetoed alert on bad blood
A Federal Government body ruled out blanket public warnings about hepatitis C in donated blood 13 years ago - and since then thousands of people have learned they are infected with the virus.
The Red Cross blood service raised the question of whether an alert - similar to that issued at the height of the AIDS crisis - should be issued, but it was ruled out by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Now a Senate inquiry admits that the current system for alerting people about the virus is not working. And yet the draft recommendations of that inquiry, details of which have been obtained by the Herald, rule out any compensation for living victims who were infected by donated blood.
Instead, they should get an apology, the Senate committee will say when it reports next Thursday. A fund will be established to provide financial assistance, but this is likely to be restricted to allowing victims to get better access to existing health and educational services.
The inquiry will also recommend that hemophiliacs be given access to artificial blood products after it was told that up to 80 per cent of them have been infected with hepatitis C.
Victims' groups claim as many as 20,000 people have been infected by donated blood. The Red Cross told the inquiry there were about 8000 living victims.
Among the findings is an admission that the system to detect hepatitis C in blood recipients - jointly run by the Red Cross and the state and federal governments - is inadequate. The multi-million-dollar "Lookback" system was put in place in the early 1990s after blanket public warnings were ruled out.
Under Lookback, if a blood donor is found with the virus all previous donations by that person are traced and recipients are told they might have hepatitis C. Similarly, if past recipients of blood products get sick, other people who have received blood from their donor are contacted.
But the Senate inquiry was told that, because of poor record keeping by hospitals, thousands of Australians may still be unaware that they have the virus. The long incubation period of the virus, which can be as long as 20 years, complicates the process.
The inquiry recommends establishing a more effective program, which could yet lead to the kind of public alert that was suggested in 1991. The Senate inquiry was established following a Herald investigation into problems in the blood system.
Brenton Wylie, the national blood products manager for the Red Cross, said it was the Government that decided not to issue a "universal Lookback" similar to that for HIV/AIDS.
"I think it is important to place on the record that the decision not to do the universal Lookback element was not made by the Red Cross," Dr Wylie has told victims. "That was made by a government agency and a government committee."
His comments were made last month at a meeting, chaired by a former NSW chief justice, Sir Laurence Street, where the Red Cross issued an apology for its part in the tragedy. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross said Dr Wylie was referring to the research council decision in 1991 not to introduce a universal Lookback program. That decision was confirmed by a second research council report in 1993. A council spokeswoman declined to comment.
Charles MacKenzie, president of a victims' charity, the Independent Blood Council, said the revelation explained why victims may not be compensated. "I personally believe that the Federal Government are liable for the fact that women who were infected were not warned and went on to have children who became infected through childbirth. This could have been averted if they had been warned.
"They should have had blanket warnings from the moment that they knew this was a problem. They can argue scientific technicalities but they cannot refute the fact that the public has a right to be warned about a danger to them."