The Masonic Advocate: Being a Concise Exposition and Full Defense of Free Masonry (1859)

This is the story of Niamh Cosgrave, a young Dublin mother of two. She tested positive for the hepatitis-C virus in the course of receiving a blood transfusion. She managed to bear a healthy son. She went on to campaign for information, for treatment and for compensation. Her story is shared by hundreds of other women and their families. Just after noon on Monday, 21 February 1994, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service Board issued notice of a news conference at its headquarters in Dublin. A link had been detected between the hepatitis-C virus and Anti-D, a product given to some women at childbirth. Since that day, over 60,000 women have been screened and over 1600 now claim to have been infected by contaminated Anti-D. Other individuals were infected with the hepatitis-C virus in the course of receiving blood transfusions.