NHS urges tests as ‘thousands may be unaware of infection’

THOUSANDS of people may remain unaware that they were infected after receiving contaminated blood, the inquiry into the blood scandal heard.

More than 7,500 patients are thought to have been infected in the 1970s and 1980s. But the Hepatitis C Trust continues to receive calls from people who have only recently been diagnosed, Jenni Richards QC, counsel to the Infected Blood Inquiry, said. She warned that potentially thousands more may be at risk.

She revealed that NHS England has recently circulated letters to GPs across the country urging doctors to make sure patients who might be infected are given blood tests. The letter says that ‘approximately 1 per cent of transfusions given prior to 1991 could have contained an infected agent such as hepatitis C.’

It draws clinicians’ attention to the fact that the virus often doesn’t have ‘notifiable symptoms until the liver has been significantly damaged.’ It says staff should consider asking ‘patients with non-specific symptoms whether they may have had blood products and offering them a screen for blood-borne diseases’.