Between 70 to 100 children who attended Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin in the early 1990s are to be contacted to be screened for Hepatitis C testing.
At a press conference at the hospital today Dr Finn Breathnach, consultant paediatric oncologist at the hospital said an issue had arisen during a specific period - between October 1991 and April 1994 - when the hospital was using a test for Hepatitis C that was less effective than that being used during the same period by the Blood Transfusion Service Board.
He said the hospital was told by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (formerly the BTSB) in January this year that two patients who had received platelets in 1984 and 1988 were now found to be positive for Hep C.
This information had prompted a look-back programme, during which the difference between the hospital's and the BTSB Hep C test was identified, he said.
The former patients being contacted had received platelets from the hospital's platelet donation programme. They would now be young adults. Dr Breathnach said the patients being contacted would have been among the sickest children in the State, suffering from cardiac problems or Leukaemia.
He said the majority of patients receiving platelets at Crumlin Hospital during that period were receiving chemotherapy. Patients receiving chemotherapy sometimes need platelet transfusions to help their blood clot effectively. Heart surgery patients and victims of serious trauma can need platelet transfusions too.
Dr Breathnach said that while there was a risk that a patient had suffered Hep C infection, in his view the risk it was almost infinitesimal.
However, all families, who had children receiving platelets at the hospital during the specific timescale are being encouraged to contact the hospital on its freephone information number: 1800 250 450. The hospital is offering screening and counselling.
He asked that former patients in receipt of platelets during this period to contact the hospital to ensure their contact details are up to date.
He said initial indications were that the number of patients involved would be between 70 per cent and 100 per cent.
He said the platelet donors would also be contacted and offered counselling and screening. He estimated the number of donors to be around 77. He said the hospital was very reliant on these donors, who gave freely of their time.
Asked why the hospital had not adopted the more modern test for Hep C being used by the BTSB during the early nineties, Dr Breathnach said it was his personal view that funding may have been a factor at that time.
He added that a couple of families had contacted the hospital, but many were from patients treated outside the window period concerned.
