THE Minister for Health may consider introducing optional testing for recipients of blood transfusions following the Kilkenny HIV case.
Mr Noonan said he had asked the Blood Transfusion Service Board to provide him, as a matter of extreme urgency, with an assessment of how successful it expects to be in tracing those who received donations it regarded as potentially infected. He had offered the full support of his Department.
On the basis of the board's assessment of the situation, and an examination of the residual risk, I hope to be in a position to make an informed decision regarding an optional testing programme at an early date," he added.
"I want to assure the deputies that if I believe that it is correct to do so, I will not hesitate to have the necessary arrangements put in place."
Mr Noonan said the board had established that a maximum of 15 recipients were involved. And it was possible that it was 15 issues of blood rather than 15 people.
The Minister was replying to special notice questions from the opposition spokeswomen on health, Mrs Maire Geoghegan-Quinn (FF) and Ms Liz O'Donnell (PD).
The board, he said, was of the view that the earliest date of infection by HIV of blood in the Republic was probably 1981. No screening test was available until 1985, and this was introduced in October of that year. Since then, all blood donated to the BTSB had been screened for HIV and donations found to be positive were discarded.
The board had told him that, since October 1985, 24 donors had been diagnosed as positive. However, eight were first-time donors and, accordingly, no risk of HIV transmission to recipients was involved.
Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn suggested it was extraordinary that the Minister was not made aware of any specific difficulties relating to batches of blood with HIV infection until Monday.
Mr Noonan said the Kilkenny health-care worker was the first case in the State of a person infected with HIV as a result of infected blood. Over the years, 1,600 cases had been identified - and a blood transfusion was only produced in one instance as the primary risk factor. When traced, it was found that transfusion had been administered abroad.
"I want to put it in context so that people are not scared about what is happening," he said.
Ms O'Donnell asked why it had taken 11 years for the matter to come into the public arena. "Could it be that the same level of reckless incompetence was shown relating to this matter as we are seeing unfolding at the hepatitis C inquiry
Mr Noonan said he regarded the issue as a very serious one. "What I am simply explaining is that the level of risk in terms of numbers is very significantly lower than in respect of hepatitis C."