Link: http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/article_1181.asp
Tainted BloodNovember 10, 2002
Reporter : Helen Dalley
Producer : Nick Farrow
Corey was infected with the Hepatitis C virus as a newborn baby in December 1990. Just 20 hours old, he received a blood transfusion to save his life. It turned out to be contaminated with Hepatitis C.
Hep C is disparagingly known as the "injecting drug users", or "junkies" disease since it is spread by blood to blood contact, mainly through unsafe needles and syringes. But an estimated 10,000, possibly 20,000, Australians were infected with Hep C-contaminated blood during the 1980s. Some were even infected into the 1990s after screening for the disease was introduced by the Red Cross Blood Service. Many werent in high-risk groups including women in childbirth, and people needing blood during surgery.
"This is the single greatest medical disaster in Australian history and weve had no inquiry and no special assistance for the victims of this tragedy," says long-time Hep C campaigner Charles MacKenzie.
Hep C is an insidious disease, ten times more infectious than AIDS, but slower to damage the body. Of those infected, three-quarters have chronic Hep C infection. In some it will mean intense pain in the liver, nausea and loss of quality of life. In others it will develop into cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver. Some will progress to liver failure. The only option for those who develop liver failure is a liver transplant. Hep C is the most common cause of such transplants in Australia today. It can also lead to a painful death from cancer.
According to sufferers, the Red Cross Blood Service has not been frank about tainted blood transfusions, giving little or no information to recipients of infected blood or blood products. Any legal action has been shrouded in secrecy clauses imposed by the Red Cross Blood Service.
These sufferers say the blood service down-played risks of infection even after first-generation screening tests were introduced in February 1990. According to many, theyve had scant support in dealing with the disease they acquired from blood.
Some say they were never offered counselling, financial or medical assistance. Others have gone for years not knowing they contracted Hep C from blood transfusions, so losing the opportunity of receiving treatment while possibly infecting those around them.
According to Andrew Grech, of solicitors Slater and Gordon, there are probably still hundreds of individuals who dont know now that theyve been infected.
"The attitude of the Red Cross was to put down the shutters and try and down-play the claims being made by claimants and to some extent hope that it would go away," says Grech. "It hasnt gone away it's been an ongoing problem for them."
The Red Cross still prefers to avoid public scrutiny, and deals with media questions on the whole episode by ignoring them. The Red Cross Blood Service refused to be interviewed for this program.
Corey isnt the only one who feels betrayed by the Red Cross Blood Service a life-saving organisation so respected in our community.
"Ive been swept under the carpet forgotten about," says Sue Bell, who got a Hep C-infected blood transfusion after giving birth in August 1991. Her transfusion was a year and a half after screening began. Infected blood still slipped through, somehow. But she's had no explanation from the Red Cross.
In January 1992, the Blood Service conclusively established that the donor for Sues transfusion had been Hepatitis C positive. But it took a further 10 months before an investigation began to trace the recipients of his blood. Sue wasnt contacted till March 1993, 14 months after they knew her donor was infected with Hepatitis C.
"I feel a bit sad that theres nothing they feel they have to apologise for. If it was a mistake, a hiccup, that they cant just ring me or write me a sorry letter because it has changed my life."
As Lakes observes, with remarkable understatement, "I just think thats a pretty shabby deal."
People living with Hep C are often the target of discrimination, because of its association with injecting drug use. A typical victim, Anne is so traumatised by her Hep C infection, she wont publicly reveal her identity for fear of recriminations against her child.
Anne is proof that Hep C infection through transfusion was happening long after blood screening started. She was transfused with Hepatitis C-infected blood during a complicated childbirth in July 1992 two and a half years after testing began. That testing, the Red Cross assured the community, was supposed to eliminate tainted donations.
Then out of the blue, seven years after her transfusion, she received a bombshell letter from the Victorian Department of Human Services, stating: You may remember that in 1992 you received a blood transfusion." The letter informed her one of the donors may have been infected with Hepatitis C.
"Originally I was just shocked," she says. "But it sort of made sense when I looked at my health because I had gone to the doctor several times before trying to find out what was wrong with me."
had been introduced in Australia in February 1990, two and a half years before her transfusion.
To date compensation has been arbitrary, paid to some victims of an infected blood donation, but not to others. Young Corey McCullagh is one of the lucky ones, finally compensated after an eight-year legal battle. But his mother Tracey isn't allowed to talk about the settlement.
The mere fact that compensation has been paid, let alone how many hundreds of people have received pay-outs, is an issue the Red Cross, and its insurers, seems determined to keep hidden.
Useful contacts and links
If you are interested in contacting members of the Tainted Blood Product Action Group:
Phone: (02) 9553 1495 (new group number)
Fax: (02) 9552 6293
Email: [email protected].
Website: www.taintedbloodnetwork.com.
Hepatitis C telephone information and support services in Australia:
NSW
Sydney callers: 02 9332 1599
NSW regional callers: 1800 803 990
VIC
HCCVIC info & support (Melbourne metro): 03 9380 4644
HCCVIC info & support (Vic country): 1800 703 003
Hep C Helpline (Melbourne metro callers): 03 9349 1111
Hep C Helpline (Victoria regional callers): 1800 800 241
QLD
Brisbane callers: 07 3229 3767
Queensland regional callers: 1800 648 491
SA
HCCSA (Adelaide metro callers): 08 8362 8443
HCCSA (regional callers): 1800 021 133
Drug & Alcohol Service all heps: 1800 621 780
WA
Perth callers: 08 9328 8538
Western Australia regional callers: 1800 800 070
TAS
TasCAHRD Hobart callers: 03 6234 1242 (ask for hep C worker)
TasCAHRD regional callers: 1800 005 900 (ask for hep C worker)
[041 366 7641 - hep C worker direct; will return call so caller doesnt pay. NB call TasCAHRD first]
ACT: 02 6253 9999
NT
AIDS Council: 1800 880 899; Darwin area: 08 8941 1711; Central Australia: 08 8953 1118
Territory Health Services: 08 8922 8007, 1800 353 755
(emphasis mine)
Edited by - Prisca on 12 November 2002 5:36:20