Vol. 514 No. 6
210 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on his Depart ment's investigation into a situation where a toxic batch of the three-in-one vaccine was administered to at least 300 people 30 years ago; the steps, if any, being taken to locate those persons; and the health board areas in which these toxic vaccines were administered. [5155/00]
Following the receipt of information in 1997 and 1998 from Glaxo Wellcome concerning the lot numbers produced from batch 3741 Trivax vaccine, the vaccine batch at issue in the Kenneth Best case, my Department wrote to the health boards asking them to examine their records to see if the extent of usage of these lots in the 1968-70 period could be established.
Final responses have now been received from all of the health boards. The responses indicate that the use of vaccine from two of the lots in question was recorded in respect of 296 persons in four health board areas. The records in other boards were either unavailable or did not contain any of the relevant lot numbers. It should be noted that the period in question pre-dated the establishment of the regional health boards. The boards in whose areas such usage was recorded were the Mid-Western Health Board, the North Western Health Board, the Southern Health Board and the Western Health Board.
My Department is currently considering the whole matter with a view to determining what further action is required in the light of the information obtained.
