Officials belonging to the Scottish health department have admitted that blood transfusions may have resulted in fresh cases of hepatitis C among NHS patients. As many as 3,000 people may have been affected by this, and it is not possible to trace all of them through the available records.
Most of the affected patients many not even be aware of the fact that they have been infected. Furthermore, in most cases it cannot be ascertained as to exactly how a person had contracted this disease. The Executive on the other hand has ascertained that a 'look back exercise' is in place which makes it possible to trace blood donations as well as the recipients.Several hundreds of Scots are reported to have been infected with contaminated blood during the course of the 1980s and in the early period of the 1990s. Many of the files with regard to the infection due to the NHS blood products no longer exist as they have been destroyed, making tractability all the more difficult. A public enquiry may also not serve its purpose as the passage of time has been quite large.
