Before 1972 non a and non b was often called transfusion hepatitis from 1919-1972. recently an MP in the Commons mentioned her grandfather, who got hepatitis from a transfusion in 1918 finally died of liver complications.  He was rediagnosed non a and non b in 1972 and rediagnosed again with hepatitis c after 1989.  People with non a and non b or transfusion hepatitis have been warned they have weak livers for decades. In the sixties doctors would write transfusion hepatitis on the file, they'd note persistently high ALTs liver readings and warn patients to protect their livers. In the seventies and eighties a diagnosis of non a non b hepatitis would bring warnings and some monitoring from most clinicians. 

The point is below is a Canadian list of hospital hcv non a non b admissions showing hundreds of people presenting with this on their files, each was tested after the discovery of the Hepatitis C blood test, yet in the UK many such patients, seemingly most were not promptly contacted in the period from 1991 to 1998. 

In fact on the National Hepatitis B Helpline and also on the National Hepatitis C Helpline we often hear of patients with this diagnosis on their medical files waiting years and years for a test. In 2011 we were nagging NICE to mention Non and Non B diagnosis, that they are not being mentioned in policy documents or GP's being reminded to test these patients, even now in 2017 we are still getting reports of people discovering they have a non a and non b diagnosis hidden on their medical files. Next to nothing has ever been done to contact these patients. It is not uncommon to hear from patients with serious liver disease who have 30 years of innocence until re diagnosis. 

The bulk of non a non b diagnosis were post transfusion, Dr O'Shaunessy's comment in the Risks of Transfusion article in the Pharmaceutical Journal online mentioned that 0.5% of the transfused showed a non a and non b hepatitis infection in the Eighties would mean about 1500 people a year.  

Why was nothing done to find and test these forgotten patients? We know the NHS settled out of court in 1990 and only accepted liability for post 1990 infections but to just leave thousands of patients diagnosed with non a and non b hepatitis, a seriously deadly condition without a campaign to find them, without a serious initiative a GP level.....well its another cover up.  The document below was used by the Canadian Inquiry to motor rapid diagnosis for all non a and non b hepatitis patients in Canada in the Nineties.