A WOMAN who developed AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion is suing the State for aggravated damages.
The woman - a nurse living in Co Kilkenny - was initially infected with HIV and now has full blown AIDS and is seriously ill. She is seeking an early court hearing because of her deteriorating condition.
She is the first person known to have become infected with HIV through a blood transfusion, and she is taking her High Court action against the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) and the Department of Health.
The middle aged woman is in the fourth and final stage of the illness. According to her solicitor, Ms Ann Marie McCrystal, she is anxious that she "does not end up in the same situation as Mrs Brigid McCole".
Mrs McCole, who became infected with the hepatitis C virus through anti D immunoglobulin, died a week before her case against the State was due to begin in the High Court.
The woman's legal teams has sought the discovery of documents from the BTSB and the Department of Health.
The Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, this week announced a new tribunal to examine the HIV infection of BTSB blood. It emerged before Christmas that the BTSB had failed to trace the blood of seven donors who had tested HIV positive between 1985 and 1989. Some 31 blood products were made from these donations and the Kilkenny nurse was infected by one of them.
In September, the BTSB wrote to 45 hospitals requesting them to trace the blood products. However, the letters contained no mention of HIV and only 14 out of 45 responded at that time, prompting a major political controversy.
Ms McCrystal, of Lavelle Coleman solicitors, said her client wanted a separate inquiry into how she became infected with the contaminated blood product.
Married with no children, the woman became ill while abroad on holidays before Christmas. She was tested for HIV and told the test was positive. She worked in St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and was infected after a blood transfusion for anaemia in 1985.
"Time is not in her favour," Ms, McCrystal told The Irish Times. "She is the only one that we know of that is alive and that was infected through one of these blood products. The terms of reference of the tribunal announced by the Minister for Health are still under debate so she wants to ensure that her situation is investigated properly and quickly. She wants to know exactly how she got infected and is calling on the Minister for Health to deal with it in a sensitive and caring manner.
A spokesman for the BTSB said last night that 10 of the 16 blood products, mainly red cells, platelets, and plasma, remained untraced. He said that hospitals had completed a search of their transfusion files but were now going through individual patient files, which would take some time.
A spokeswoman for Cairde, which provides a range of services for people with AIDS, said yesterday that there were four stages in the disease. In the fourth stage people become susceptible to "opportunistic" infections and serious illness because their immune system has broken down.