Almost a quarter of Bradford women treated by a surgeon infected with hepatitis C have still not been traced.

A total of 376 women who had babies at Bradford Royal Infirmary between August 1979 and January 1980 were called back for blood tests at the end of March.

They had been identified as being at risk because they had surgical procedures the junior surgeon had been involved in.

But Dr Michael Smith, medical director at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We were unable to trace 91, despite trying to trace them through the systems in the NHS for change of address."

Some properties written to had been demolished, with no forwarding address for former residents, he said.

Of the 285 women who were traced, nine had died, ten were blood donors and so had already been screened for the disease and four refused the test.

A further 22 did not turn up for blood tests despite being invited, but 240 women have been tested and none of them were infected with the virus.

Dr Smith said the recall had been co-ordinated by the Department of Health and had been undertaken simultaneously by several hospitals across the country where the surgeon had worked.

Hepatitis C can lead to no symptoms at all, but in the most severe cases serious liver disease can occur. It is mainly passed on by contact with the blood of an infected person.

The surgeon, who had discovered he was infected with the virus last autumn after one of his patients contracted the disease, was a senior consultant at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, at the time.

It was discovered that he had infected a handful of other patients during his career before the recall of patients in Bradford.

A health authority spokesman said Dr Ruth Gelletlie, consultant in communicable disease control at Bradford Health Authority, was unable to comment on the inability to trace 91 former patients.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said the risk of infection was very small, especially after 20 years. If patients had active hepatitis C infection, it was likely they would have known before now.

The results of the national recall, including the number of patients found to be infected, would be available early next month, he said.

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