There may be difficulties in tracing all the patients who have received the blood products withdrawn because of the risk of infection from CJD, the fatal degenerative brain disease.
Approximately 270 people received the product in nine hospitals in the State between July and November of this year, a Department of Health spokesman confirmed yesterday.
It is believed there are difficulties in tracing the recipients of the product, a radiological dye used in lung scans, because of "insufficient documentation", according to a source.
Three batches of the blood product, Amerscam Pulmonate II, manufactured in the UK, were withdrawn in Ireland after it was discovered that the donor in the UK subsequently developed new variant CJD.
Last night in a statement the Department of Health said that it would shortly make arrangements for the recipients of the product to be informed.
The risks related to new-variant CJD cannot be accurately estimated, according to a medical specialist based in Ireland who is investigating the disease. He added that the risk for these people was "very remote". However, new-variant CJD was "unpredictable" and more aggressive than other CJD forms.
In Britain it is believed that a decision has been taken not to inform recipients. The Department of Health here decided people will be told.
Department officials have been dealing with the difficulty of not being able to identify the level of risk or offer a test to detect the disease when informing people.
The Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health, Dr Jim Kiely, commented: "We know there are nine hospitals and we know the actual radiology departments and the hospitals are now in the process of putting together names. We are looking at what is the most sympathetic and sensible method of telling people."
Dr Kiely said that he was "not aware" of any particular difficulties in tracing the recipients of the product. The product was administered in hospitals between July and November.
There is no medical evidence that CJD has been transmitted by blood or blood products. The UK donor who died in November had new-variant CJD and the recall was seen to be a sensible precaution.
The product is a dye used by radiologists. It is protein which is albumen-based. Dr Kiely said that, as it was the new variant, they were not entirely sure of its manifestation.
"A link between blood variants and CJD has never been established, but we withdrew it simply as a precautionary measure," he said.
The medical director of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Dr Willy Murphy, said that the BTSB was not involved in the production or supply of the product, and no Irish blood or plasma donations had gone into it.
He said the BTSB was satisfied that anybody who had received the implicated product would have been excluded from donating blood under current donor selection procedures.
Prospective donors were asked whether they had been in hospital for any surgical procedure or medical investigation recently, he said.
Risk of infection remote, says specialist; Department of Health