Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal (Amendment) Act 2006

Amendment of section 2 of Health (Amendment) Act 1996 (provision of health services without charge to certain persons who have contracted hepatitis C).

6.— Section 2 of the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 is amended—

(a) in subsection (1), by substituting “Subject to subsection (1A), a” for “A”, and

(b) by inserting the following after subsection (1):

“(1A) Subject to subsection (1B), a person has not contracted hepatitis C for the purposes of subsection (1) unless the person has been diagnosed positive for hepatitis C and either—

(a) the diagnosis is—

(i) based on a positive test result arising from an enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay, or

(ii) in the case of a recombinant immunoblot assay which indicates antibodies to individual viral antigens on 4 different antibody bands identified as C-22, C-33, C-100 and NS-5, based on a positive test result—

(I) of not less than 2+ on the C-22 antibody band, or

(II) of not less than 3+ on each of any 2 of the other antibody bands,

or

(iii) based on a positive test result arising from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test,

(b) the person displays symptoms of acute infection by reference to the presence of jaundice, or raised alamine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, not later than 16 weeks after the person has been administered anti-D, or

(c) the diagnosis is based on a positive test result arising from a test specified for the purposes of subsection (1A)(c) of section 1 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act 1997 as amended by section 1 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal (Amendment) Act 2006.

(1B) Subsection (1A) does not apply in the case of a person who falls within subsection (1) by virtue of an opinion referred to in subsection (1) which was expressed before 20 June 2006.”.