Infected blood inquiry: study that said risk was seen as ‘tolerable’ omitted patient death

A study cited at the infected blood inquiry as evidence that the devastating consequences of blood products contaminated with hepatitis could not have been foreseen, misrepresented the results of a trial in making its case, according to the Guardian.

Up to 6,520 people are believed to have been infected with hepatitis C through imported factor VIII blood products in the 1970s and 80s, while a further 26,800 are estimated to have been infected with the virus though blood transfusions. About 2,000 people are estimated to have died as a result.

The inquiry, which publishes its final report on 20 May, heard that the medical profession considered non-A and non-B hepatitis (later known as hepatitis C) as “relatively benign” at the time, with Pier Mannuccio Mannucci’s 2003 paper, 'Aids, hepatitis and haemophilia in the 1980s: memoirs from an insider', quoted in support of this proposition. 

Mannucci’s 2003 paper argued that the view held by “the great majority of haemophilia treaters was that the problem of hepatitis was a tolerable one, because the benefits of concentrates seemed to outweigh risks”.

In making his argument, Mannucci cited his own work, writing: “A prospective biopsy study was undertaken by me … in 10 haemophiliacs with non-A, non-B chronic hepatitis followed up for more than six years. The study, published in 1982, demonstrated no case of progression towards cirrhosis or haepatocellular carcinoma.”

However, the original 1982 report says that there were actually 11–not 10–people included in the study and “one patient with active cirrhosis died of liver failure during the follow-up period”.

Who knew what about the risks and when is a key plank of the inquiry.

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Source: Guardian, 2 May 2024