A mother who went into politics in a bid to improve the life of her young child got the news she desperately wanted yesterday — that a cystic fibrosis wonder drug will be available to patients in Ireland from next month.

HEALTH Minister Dr James Reilly will open a new haemophilia centre at Cork University Hospital today — five years after a study found that services at the hospital for people with bleeding disorders were “grossly inadequate”.

A conference in Cork and Dublin this weekend is aiming to make people aware of bleeding disorders in women.

MORE than 1,000 women in Ireland have been diagnosed with a variety of bleeding disorders including mild haemophilia but many more suffering from the same health problem are going undetected.

A NEW blood test for the human form of mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD), could be available this summer.

The Irish Haemophilia Society says it is concerned following confirmation that a person in the UK has been infected with vCJD via contaminated blood plasma.

THERE is still no dedicated inpatient centre for people with haemophilia in Ireland — five years after a proposal to build one was given the green light.

THE health of people with hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood and blood products more than 20 years ago is likely to deteriorate in the years ahead, a medical expert warned yesterday.

A STATE-FUNDED life assurance and mortgage protection scheme for people infected with hepatitis or HIV from contaminated blood products has been launched by the Government.

AFTER almost 40 years the Irish Haemophilia Society that championed the rights of haemophiliacs caught up in the blood contamination scandal has permanent headquarters.

HAEMOPHILIACS have accused the Government of betraying them in not pursuing the US pharmaceutical firms that supplied the State with contaminated blood products.

The Irish Haemophilia Society has expressed deep disappointment that the Government has decided not to take legal action in order to recoup the money for the Irish taxpayer from the three American firms that supplied the infected blood products from which 91 Irish people died, and a total of 106 people were infected with HIV and 221 with hepatitis C.

No legal action is to be taken against US pharmaceutical companies accused of contaminating more than 300 haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C.

NEW legislation designed to end a nine-year battle between victims of blood bank blunders and the State has provoked a major row between Health Minister Mary Harney and people inadvertently infected with hepatitis C and HIV.

MORE than a year after the Government promised a statutory scheme to allow people infected with hepatitis C and HIV obtain life assurance, a bill legislating for the scheme has finally been published.

The Irish Haemophilia Society has promised the parents of two-year-old Pierce Nowlan its full support during the inquest into their son’s death.

THE anger expressed by the Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) because of apparent Government indolence is very understandable.

THE Government will not contemplate suing the US pharmaceutical firms whose blood products infected haemophiliacs until it finds a case it believes it can win.

The Government will decide in late May if it will sue US pharmaceutical firms over contaminated blood products.

The Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) is reportedly accusing the Government of failing to pursue pharmaceutical firms that sold contaminated products to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Generous passengers travelling through Dublin Airport have given 19 Irish charities a Christmas present worth thousands of euro.

A LONDON-based law firm has been engaged by the Government to investigate the role played by US-based pharmaceutical firms in the blood contamination scandal.

The Irish Haemophilia Society has welcomed a move by Health Minister Mary Harney to investigate the role of international drug firms in Hepatitis C and HIV infection scandals.

EXPERTS believe they have traced every haemophiliac infected with HIV or hepatitis C as a result of receiving contaminated blood products.

THE Attorney General (AG) is to seek legal advice from a US firm on the feasibility of suing the American multinationals that provided contaminated blood products to Irish hospitals.

HAEMOPHILIACS who may have received blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C before 1992 are being urged to come forward to be tested for the viruses.

THE Government, facing a final bill of almost €900 million to compensate people infected by contaminated blood, has been urged to take legal action against pharmaceutical companies in the United States who supplied the lethal products.

The Government is to fund a special scheme to help people infected with Hepatitis C and HIV through the state’s blood transfusion service to obtain mortgages and insurance, it emerged tonight.

Blood donation restrictions were tightened today after warnings in Britain that vCJD can be transmitted through transfusions.

EFFORTS by haemophiliacs to sue the drug companies responsible for infecting them with contaminated blood were yesterday stalled once more by the Government.

The Irish Haemophilia Society is reportedly furious at the Government’s failure to honour commitments made in the wake of the Lindsay Tribunal.

HAEMOPHILIACS have been waiting almost two years for the Government to come up with a formula for examining the role played by the US-based pharmaceutical firms in the blood contamination crisis.

THE Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s inability to respond to every cry for help is troubling newly-appointed chief executive Rosemary Daly.

HAEMOPHILIACS found themselves facing yet another fight for justice after a meeting with Health Minister Micheál Martin yesterday.

THE thought of children in need of chemotherapy being turned away from Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children because of bed and staff shortages is too heart-rending for words.

An international conference on Hepatitis C is being held at Trinity College Dublin today.

ROSEMARY DALY, the tough-talking woman who led a tiny Irish haemophilia community in their fight for justice, now feels her efforts were a waste of time.

GROUPS representing people infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood products have called for a meeting with the minister for health following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling to limit compensation awards to some victims.

The health minister today ruled out the possibility of new legislation to increase compensation paid to hepatitis C victims infected by contaminated blood.

The Irish Haemophilia Society has called on Health Minister Micheal Martin to change the rules of appeal for Hepatitis C sufferers who received compensation from a state tribunal in the late 1990s.

HEPATITIS C victims will today learn the outcome of a legal challenge that could leave the State open to fresh multi-million euro compensation claims.

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin is refusing to bow to pressure to scrap the non-statutory inquiry into the organ retention scandal.

HEPATITIS C victims must wait to find out if they can appeal compensation tribunal awards to the High Court in a legal challenge that could leave the State open to multi-million euro claims.