A man with advanced liver disease as a result of contracting Hepatitis C from a contaminated blood transfusion administered to him when a young child is to get compensation of more than €1.26 million as a result of a High Court ruling.

The virus, which is nowadays carried mainly through injected drug use, is being discussed at an Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) conference in Dublin.

The HSE had to suspend its treatment programme for patients with Hepatitis C for a month in 2017 because it did not know the number of patients being treated and risked running out of money.

A former Hepatitis C sufferer is urging those with the virus to come forward and get help.

The Minister for Health cannot appeal a finding by the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal that a woman probably contracted Hepatitis C as a result of being given infected blood products after the birth of her daughter some 40 years ago, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Theresa May has announced a wide-ranging inquiry into the contaminated blood "scandal" of the 1970s and 1980s which left 2,400 people dead in the UK.

The woman jailed last year for stealing €116,000 from a charity set up to support women with hepatitis C was considered “brilliant” by some of her peers, and the only one with book-keeping experience.

The woman who controlled the finances of a charity set up to support women with hepatitis C ultimately raised the suspicions of her peers when she failed to provide satisfactory explanations around missing cheque stubs and delays in obtaining copy cheques from the bank.

The Irish Haemophilia Society says the eradication of the Hepatitis C among its members is a huge milestone.

The HSE has yet to decide if it will provide funding this year for a hepatitis C support group after an internal audit found “significant extravagance” and “governance deficiencies” in its use of public funds.

In what has been described as a “transformative” breakthrough, a group of patients suffering from advanced liver disease as a result of hepatitis C have been cleared of the virus.

The HSE has pulled the plug on funding for a support group for women given contaminated blood products by the State, on foot of serious concerns about “inappropriate and extravagant” use of public funds.