The Edinburgh Hepatitis Outbreak

Another hospital to visit today - the Western General in Edinburgh. This was at one time the Nuffield Transplantation Surgery Unit which was a sophisticated purpose-built unit for transplantation which aimed to provide a "germ-free" environment for transplant patients. The boss was the famous Professor Woodruff.

My (sadly, late) sister in law was a member of the Transplant Team as a theatre sister. I remember often in the early 1970's being hauled out of bed to drive her down to the Western in the middle of the night, while she would sit in the passenger seat and rehearse the operating notes from a scrappy piece of paper.

Renal transplantation was a massive leap forward. But in the early days a very risky business. Only 37 out of 127 patients survived one year in the 1960's - compared to a 95% survival rate by year 2000.

In 1969 there was a disastrous outbreak of Hepatitis in the unit, and in its companion unit at the Royal Infirmary. There were a total of 40 cases of clinical hepatitis in Edinburgh between June 1969 and August 1970, including 26 patients, 2 home contacts and 12 members of staff (surgeons, nurses, technicians). Of these, 7 patients, 2 laboratory technicians and 2 transplant surgeons died.

Pioneering in medicine always seems to have carried terrible risks.