Newstalk Documentaries

New radio documentary ‘Tainted Blood’ lays bare the devastating impact of infected blood products on the Irish Haemophilia Community In 1982 the first case of HIV was recorded in Ireland. By 1985 all people with haemophilia were being tested for the disease. More than one third of them were found to be HIV positive having contracted the disease through infected blood products that were made up of pooled plasma from thousands of donors, much of which had been imported. Colm Walsh, who has haemophilia, features on the documentary. As a child Colm and his older brother Brendan were treated with the same blood products and, by some cruel twist of fate, Brendan contracted HIV and eventually died of AIDs. Colm did not, but sadly did contract Hepatitis C, another disease which ravaged the haemophilia community in the late 80s as a result of infected blood products. Colm shares his remarkable story on the documentary, he said, “Despite the fact this happened over 40 years ago some of us are still living with this