Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - Monday, 8 December, 2003
Peter Longstaff, 45, who says he has "very little if any trust" in assurances that proposed treatments with human blood products will be safe, had his case rejected by Mr Justice Charles, sitting in London.
Mr Longstaff, from Jesmond, Newcastle, had accused Newcastle NHS Primary Care Trust of acting "unfairly and unreasonably".
The judge expressed "considerable sympathy" for Mr Longstaff, but said the Trust's decision "came within the range of conclusions open to it".
Mr Longstaff, who has been infected with a range of conditions including HIV, wanted doctors to use synthetic techniques that would cut the risk of future infections.
But the NHS trust said it would only provide synthetic products to younger patients.
He had earlier won permission for a judicial review of a decision of the trust to refuse his request for treatment for haemophilia A with synthetic Recombinant Factor V111.
The hospital said it was following Department of Health guidelines issued in March 1998.
Human blood
It said only haemophilia A patients aged under 16 and new patients, not previously treated with plasma-based blood clotting products, should receive Factor V111.
Mr Longstaff contracted various infections whilst being treated at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI), Newcastle.
In 2000 he decided to refuse further treatment with Factor V111 derived from human blood plasma - made from thousands of individual blood donations - on the grounds that it had proved impossible to guarantee the safety of the product.
The judge ruled he had "an arguable case" which should go to a full hearing as a matter of urgency, after hearing his situation was gradually deteriorating and time was important.
At the time, the judge said 95 haemophilia patients treated at the RVI, Newcastle, had tested positive for HIV infection in recent years, and 78 had died.
Mr Longstaff was in the surviving group of 17.
He had also contracted hepatitis B, diagnosed in the mid-1980s, hepatitis C in 1994. Hepatitis G and HIV were diagnosed about 1985.
Haemophilia is a genetic blood condition in which an essential clotting factor is either partly or completely missing.
This means that even the most minor injury can lead to serious bleeding into the joints, muscles and soft tissues.
It is usually treated by replacing the missing clotting factor through regular injections.
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