The Australian Government in 2005 considered apologising to “tainted blood” victims. They’re still waiting.
JOANNE MCCARTHY
July 12, 2016, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
The Newcastle Herald
NEW SOUTH WALES: CHARLES MacKenzie has waited a long time for the Australian Government to say sorry.
Long wait: Charles MacKenzie has fought governments, health bureaucrats and blood providers for years after up to 20,000 Australians knowingly received “tainted blood” in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. He is campaigning for the apology the Australian Government committed to in 2005. Picture: Simone De Peak.
He knows people who have died waiting.
In 1989, and aged 16, Mr MacKenzie was given a contaminated blood transfusion. The blood platelets that kept him alive as he battled life-threatening severe aplastic anaemia, also infected him with life-threatening hepatitis C.
Up to 20,000 other Australians – including babies, children, women after childbirth and haemophiliacs – are believed to have received “tainted blood” transfusions in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, in what has been described as a human health disaster and global scandal.
An unknown number developed, or could develop, serious liver disease, liver failure or liver cancer, at a rate “generally much higher” than people who contract the condition by other means, primarily illicit drug use, a Senate inquiry in 2004 was told.
It recommended the federal and state governments issue an apology to “tainted blood” hepatitis C victims, a financial fund for victims, and “case managed” support for people affected. The then health minister Tony Abbott said the governments would consider the recommendations.
It didn’t happen, said Mr MacKenzie, of Dora Creek, and Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long.
In the past 18 months English Prime Minister David Cameron has formally apologised to English “tainted blood” victims, and the Scottish and Irish governments have approved pensions and substantial compensation to victims and their families.
Mr Cameron told the UK Parliament in March, 2015: “It is difficult to imagine the feelings of unfairness that people must feel at being infected by something like hepatitis C or HIV as a result of a totally unrelated treatment, and to each and every one of those people, I would like to say sorry on behalf of the government for something that should not have happened.”
In Scotland in March the government agreed to pay immediate compensation payments to victims, with lifetime pensions.
“In Australia there’s been silence,” said Mr MacKenzie.
After Mr Cameron’s apology Ms Long wrote to then Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, asking what had happened to the Australian response.
The letter was referred to Health Minister Sussan Ley.
Determined: Medical Error Action Group founder Lorraine Long said it was a national disgrace that the Australian Government had not apologised to “tainted blood” victims.
In September 2015 Ms Ley wrote: “I wish to restate that I am deeply sorry to learn of the personal and physical suffering experienced by those who acquired hepatitis C from blood transfusions”, and the government acknowledged “the significant burden of this disease including the stigma”.
The response angered Mr MacKenzie and Ms Long, who called the failure to apologise and provide “case-managed” support for “tainted blood” victims a national disgrace.
“How can the UK apologise for a medical disaster, and Australia can’t, even after its own Senate recommended an apology?” Ms Long said.
An apology was vital for many reasons, including an acceptance of responsibility by federal and state governments, she said.
“People affected by one of Australia’s worst medical disasters can begin the important process of being able to show loved ones, employers and treating doctors that their infections were the outcome of an appalling tragedy and not the result of any illicit activity such as taking drugs.
“An apology will go some way to removing this ugly blood stain on Australia’s record.”
A 2004 Senate inquiry heard devastating evidence from victims who received hepatitis C in blood transfusions during childbirth and suffered debilitating symptoms, but did not discover the condition until years later. In at least one case a newborn baby was infected by hepatitis C because of a “tainted blood” transfusion.
“It’s the great unmentionable – how governments knew people would be infected with hepatitis C if they were given blood transfusions, but people weren’t told, and screening tests that could have been done, weren’t,” Mr MacKenzie said.
“Blood services were extremely aware there was a virus being transmitted to people, but they chose to do nothing about it. They just destroyed people’s lives.”
Read the full story:
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4023845/a-bloody-minded-silence/