Management at NUI Galway has no idea why it took three months for one of its research centres to inform it about a problem with its genetic testing.
The test for Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of autism, has been suspended at the National Diagnostic Centre in Galway. Efforts continue to contact the doctors of 52 people at risk of carrying the hereditary link. Those who took the test as a result of having a family history of Fragile X had already been informed that their test results were clear.
Prof Martin Cormican, professor of bacteriology at NUI Galway, said yesterday he could offer no explanation for the delay by university scientists in informing senior management of the difficulty. The matter came to light last July after a patient who had been told by the centre that her results were normal was given a different result at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.
Prof Cormican was asked by college president Prof Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh to become part of an incident management team in mid-October, when management became aware of the situation. The team began to trace the doctors and health boards who would have referred the 52 cases over a period of years.
Prof Cormican could not say how many of the 52 had been contacted by yesterday evening but said a telephone helpline had been set up. An unknown number may already have had children unaware that they were still at risk of transmitting the gene.
Ms Kathy Hayes of the Irish Fragile X Society said people told they were clear would be devastated to learn they might still be carrying it. The telephone helpline for people concerned about the Galway test is 091-494500. The Fragile X Society website is www.fragilex-ireland.org
