§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's estimate is of the number of hepatitis C sufferers who contracted the virus from NHS blood transfusions. [75497]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 21 October 2002]: A lookback programme conducted by the national blood service from 1995 identified 669 people who contracted the hepatitis C virus from blood transfusions before screening for thevirus was introduced in September 1991. However, it has been impossible to trace the majority of those likely to have been infected. Work has been undertaken to estimate the numbers involved and we expect the results to be published later this year.