Skip to main content

Blood: Haemophilia

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the first adverse liver result related to the use of blood products with haemophilia was reported under the terms of the Medicines Act 1968 and subsequent legislation; and if she will make a statement. (119893)

Reports of adverse reactions to medicines are collated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) through the voluntary spontaneous reporting scheme, the yellow card scheme.

The first report of hepatitis (liver inflammation) associated with the use of a factor VIII product was received by the MHRA via the yellow card scheme in 1976.

Before 1986, some blood clotting factor preparations were contaminated with hepatitis C virus, because blood clotting factors were derived from pooled blood received from many different blood donors. Some people with haemophilia who received blood clotting factor concentrates before 1986 were infected with the hepatitis C virus. However, commercial heat-treated factor VIII products became widely available in 1984 and from the beginning of 1986 all commercial factor VIII products authorised for use in the United Kingdom were made from screened plasma and heat treated to prevent transmission of hepatitis and HIV viruses.