The taintedblood Timeline  -  what really happened...

At a haemophilia centre in Bournemouth, there is an outbreak of hepatitis which is associated with 3 out of 4 batches of a commercial brand of freeze-dried factor VIII concentrate between the months of April and June 1974.

• 18 out of 20 patients receive commercial factor VIII
• 9 patients become ill out of a total of 18
• there are 4 cases of hepatitis B within 6 months of product use
• there are 7 cases of non-B hepatitis
• 2 of the patients contract both types of hepatitis

In the first minutes of the Medical Research Council (MRC) in February 1980, the problems of non-A non-B hepatitis (NANBH) are discussed:

"There was a problem of non-A, non-B hepatitis related to freeze-dried factor VIII and IX, both of NHS and commercial types imported from Austria and the USA. ...[Deleted name] described a recent study at the Royal Free Hospital of 11 selected patients of whom 8 received commercial concentrate, 2 NHS concentrate, and 1 cryoprecipitate." (page 2, paragraph 4, lines 1-6)

"Experiments so far showed that there were probably 2 types of non-A, non-B hepatitis associated with factor VIII. The second type had been produced by the same batch of 'HEMOFIL' which was associated with the Bournemouth outbreak in 1974." (Page 3, point 4)

Note: These minutes also show that Factor IX was being made by Immuno Ltd. in Austria; which would therefore constitute a commercial import with regards to Factor IX. (Page 3, point 3.4)