Court challenge over 'safe' blood
A haemophiliac who has already been infected with a range of life-threatening conditions, including the Aids virus, is challenging a health authority's refusal to give him treatment he regards as "safe".
Peter Longstaff, 45, from Jesmond, in Newcastle, wants doctors to use synthetic techniques that would cut the risk of future infections.
At present, Newcastle Primary Care Trust (PCT) is providing this only to younger patients.
Mr Longstaff has begun a High Court challenge against the "unfair and unreasonable" refusal by the PCT to pay for treatment with synthetic products that he could rely on as "safe".
'Future risks'
The court heard on Thursday how Mr Longstaff had been exposed, through receiving contaminated transfusions, to blood prions which could cause new variant CJD and tested positive for various strains of hepatitis, including hepatitis C, and HIV.
As a result of contracting various infections while being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, Mr Longstaff decided in 2000 to refuse further treatment with Factor VIII derived from human blood plasma - made from thousands of individual blood donations - on the grounds that it had proved impossible to guarantee the safety of the product.
Mr Longstaff's QC, Stephen Grime, said his case reflected "the plight of the haemophiliac community" whose members had received blood products contaminated with viruses.
The QC told Mr Justice Charles, sitting in London: "He has reached certain views about both his past history and about possible future risks of his treatment which are particular to him, but may well be shared by some others.
"The consequences of the knowledge... is that he has very little if any trust in the assurances which he now receives, for example over the safety of continued treatments of particular kinds - particularly those based on human blood products derived from multiple, and sometimes thousands, of donations."
The hearing continues.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ne/3223358.stm
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