The man, who suffers from a mild form of haemophilia, contracted the bloodborne infection, which can cause serious damage to the liver, after receiving treatment ahead of a routine tooth extraction in 1979.
Thousands of patients in Britain were infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C via contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, and around 2,400 people died.
The Infected Blood Inquiry is currently investigating what has been described as the ‘worst scandal’ to ever hit the NHS. It was not until 2009, when the Islander was watching a BBC Panorama documentary about the issue, that he went to the Hospital and got checked.
Now the man, who has chosen to remain anonymous, along with Deputy Inna Gardiner, is calling for the Health Department to check records – if they exist – of all patients in Jersey who were given donor blood to treat haemophilia between 1965 and 1992.
According to the NHS, haemophilia type A, the most common version, affects between one in 5,000 and one in 10,000 men in the UK.
The man, who is now clear of hepatitis C, received a product called factor eight – blood proteins that control bleeding by creating clots.
He said: ‘I was a mild haemophiliac, so up until the time of my first dental extraction I had never received factor eight. Following the dental extraction I had two to three injections of factor eight only.
‘At that time, 1979, the risk of blood being infected was apparently known to doctors, but this was never disclosed or discussed. Had it been discussed, in my case, factor eight was not the only option. In the next few years, when the incidence of infection was well known, one would have thought that all Jersey haemophiliacs would have been offered testing for HIV and hepatitis C, as these are life-changing and life-limiting diseases.
‘Certainly in the case of HIV this is quite easily sexually transmitted, so it seems to me to be criminally negligent not to test all haemophiliacs who had been given factor eight. Had I been diagnosed earlier I might have made different lifestyle choices to maintain the health of my liver.’
Deputy Gardiner, who has raised questions in the States about the impact of the scandal on Islanders, has said the government might be aware of issues with severe haemophiliacs who received regular treatment. She said there might be a minority who only received a one-off treatment who were affected but did not realise.
‘We need to draw a line under this historic blood product contamination tragedy and whatever we can do today to mitigate potential damage to health should be done. This is a life-changing and life-limiting disease which is quite easily transmitted in ignorance. If we have information on file that could have a significant impact upon a person’s health, we need to share it with them.
‘To know we have done everything we can do, which simply means we have searched our records and informed everyone who might have had one of these blood products, tested them and if needed treated them, we can draw a line under it.’
Deputy Gardiner has also made contact with authorities leading the Infected Blood Inquiry in the UK to see if it is also looking into the scandal’s impact in Jersey and Guernsey.
Last month, Health Minister Richard Renouf said in response to a written question from Deputy Gardiner that a ‘very low number’ of Jersey patients had knowingly been affected by the blood scandal. However, the number of patients infected in Jersey has ‘not been centrally recorded’.
Since 1996 haemophilia type A patients in Jersey have benefited from treatments not derived from human blood. It is hoped in ‘the next five years’ haemophilia could be cured using gene therapy.
Deputy Renouf added that, now, patients in Jersey with haemophilia were routinely screened for bloodborne virus infections.
The Health Department were contacted for further comment.
