DEEMED the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, the contaminated blood scandal culminated in tens of thousands of Brits being infected with HIV and hepatitis.
Victims of the scandal are expected to get at least £10billion in compensation, with an inquiry report revealed how top doctors and politicians failed to act on warnings about the safety of improperly screened blood transfusions and products like plasma.
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The landmark inquiry ruled that NHS conducted a “subtle, pervasive and chilling” cover-up of the scandal, brushing risks under the carpet, not telling or lying to patients about them and injecting them with contaminated blood without consent.
Unlike regular blood donations, plasma products such as Factor VIII were often sourced from the United States and elsewhere and, as donors there could be paid to give blood.
Tens of thousands of donations were mixed together for a single batch in some cases, but it only took one infected donor to contaminate an entire batch and infect patients.
At the time, the NHS had stopped paying donors for whole blood donations to reduce the risk, but Britain could not make enough so they had to be imported.
Many of those affected had bleeding disorders, particularly people with haemophilia who had a shortage of clotting agent Factor VIII.
Others were also infected through receiving blood transfusions during childbirth, surgery or other medical events.
But when did the harrowing chain of events that killed 3,000 and and infected as many as 30,000 kick off?
Here is a timeline of key dates in the scandal, leading up to the Infected Blood Inquiry ordered in 2017 by then-prime minister Theresa May.
1953
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that dried plasma should be prepared from pools of between 10 to 20 donors to reduce the risk of contamination.
1975
Lord David Owen, while serving as a Labour health minister, pledges that the UK will become self-sufficient in blood products, with some £500,000 to be spent on the policy.
1978
The NHS is sourcing supply of factor concentrate, to replace the Factor VIII clotting agent, from overseas, after the UK fails to become self-sufficient.
1983
The WHO and the Lancet, a medical journal, say people with haemophilia should be told about the risks of using blood products.
1984
Heat-treated blood products become available, which deactivate viruses in the product.
1986
Blood donations begin to be tested for HIV.
1989
The UK government provides financial support to people infected with HIV via contaminated blood products.
Hepatitis C, which was previously known as non-A/non-B hepatitis, is named.
1991
Blood donations begin to be tested for hepatitis C.
1995
The Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal is set up by the Irish government to compensate people infected with hep C as a result of receiving contaminated blood transfusion or blood products.
What is Factor VIII?
FACTOR VIII is a crucial protein in the blood coagulation process, which leads to the formation of a blood clot to stop bleeding.
People with haemophilia A, the most common form of haemophilia, can’t enough Factor VIII, which can result in dangerous bleeding.
In the 1970s and 1980s, commercial manufacturers sold Factor VIII concentrates, made by mixing together many thousands of plasma donations.
These concentrates were one way in which a haemophiliacs could get Factor VIII.
A simple infusion into the bloodstream could help replace the missing blood clotting agent and help prevent or stop bleeding.
Other treatments included Cryoprecipitate (Cryo).
The concentrates – thought to be more convenient than other available treatments – were made by pooling and processing plasma from tens of thousands of people.
This method of production created a high risk of viral transmission.
Unsafe products were used in the UK for over a decade, exposing haemophiliacs to Hepatitis C and HIV.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver and cause potentially life-threatening damage if untreated.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks your body’s immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease.
Meanwhile, AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged by the HIV virus.
By the end of 1985, the UK only used heat-treated Factor VIII.
Heat treatment could kill Hepatitis and HIV present in Factor VIII.
But the damage of more than a decade of using unsafe products had been done.
Source: Factor 8, NHS
1997
The Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal becomes a statutory body with the enactment of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act 1997.
2002
The Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal is expanded to compensate people infected with HIV as a result of the receipt of a relevant contaminated blood product within the Republic of Ireland.
2004
The UK government launches a fund to provide people infected with hep C through contaminated blood products with financial support.
2016
The Factor 8 campaign group is set up, with the aim of advocating on behalf of those impacted by contaminated Factor VIII and Factor IX concentrate blood products.
July 13: Lord David Cameron, then-prime minister, announces every victim of the NHS contaminated blood scandal will for the first time receive a regular annual support payment.
2017
Infected blood support schemes are set up across the UK, with country-specific programmes in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
July 11: Then-prime minister Theresa May announces there will be an independent public inquiry into what she called an “appalling tragedy which should simply never have happened”.
2018
July 2: The Infected Blood Inquiry is formally established after its terms of reference are announced.
2019
April: The inquiry begins hearing evidence from those infected and those affected – typically family and friends – by the scandal.
July 2: The inquiry holds its first hearings in Scotland where two previous inquiries had been branded a whitewash by campaigners.
2020
March 17: The inquiry announces that hearings will be delayed until at least mid-September because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
September 22: Hearings resume with evidence from Lord Owen.
2021
March 17: The Government announces it is resolving disparities in financial support between England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as addressing broader issues, such as support for bereaved partners.
May 21: Then-health secretary Matt Hancock appears before the inquiry, telling it the Government will pay compensation to people affected by the contaminated blood scandal if an ongoing inquiry recommends it, citing a “moral responsibility” to address the issues associated with the scandal.
2022
June 27: Sir John Major gives evidence to the inquiry, saying victims suffered “incredibly bad luck”.
July 29: Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff publishes an interim report focused on compensation.
In it, he recommends that interim compensations payments of at least £100,000 should be made to all infected blood victims and bereaved partners across the UK and should be provided “without delay”.
August 17: The Government announces that survivors of the infected blood scandal and bereaved partners will be given compensation payments of £100,000.
Campaigners argue the majority of those affected have been ignored.
October 22: The Government confirms survivors and bereaved partners will receive interim compensation payments of £100,000 by the end of the month.
2023
February 3: The inquiry hears final oral submissions.
Sam Stein KC, representing 23 people affected by infected blood or blood products, including relatives who supported a partner through terminal illness, tells the inquiry that they had “truly lived through the worst of times.”
April 5: A second interim report is published that recommends the interim compensation scheme should be widened so more people – including orphaned children and parents who lost children – could be compensated.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the Government will wait for the full report into the infected blood scandal before considering whether to extend the compensation scheme for victims.
July 4: Mr Sunak is called to give evidence to the Infected Blood Inquiry amid complaints the Government is dragging its heels over compensation payments.
July 24: Relatives of victims of the NHS infected blood scandal deliver a letter to Downing Street saying “action is needed now” to set up a body to give them full compensation.
July 26: Mr Sunak appears before the inquiry.
He is heckled as he vowed to pay compensation to victims of the “appalling” scandal “as swiftly as possible” following their decades of suffering.
His promise that the Government’s work “continues at pace” is laughed at by attendees.
July 28: Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is questioned over the long delays to paying compensation to the victims of the contaminated blood scandal as he appears before the inquiry.
He says “no decisions” have been made over compensation for the victims.
December 4: A Labour-led amendment requiring ministers to establish a body to administer the full compensation scheme within three months of the Victims and Prisoners Bill becoming law is approved.
It marks Mr Sunak’s first Commons defeat after Tory rebels backed speeding up compensation efforts.
2024
February 28: Campaigners stage a demonstration on College Green in Westminster calling for urgent action on compensation payments.
May 1: Government officials confirm that interim payments will also be paid to the “estates of the deceased infected people who were registered with existing or former support schemes”.
May 20: The inquiry publishes its final report.
The PM is today set to address Parliament to apologise to the victims of the scandal.
The infected blood scandal in numbers
IT’S thought that tens of thousands of people in the UK were infected with contaminated blood between the 1970s and early 1990s.
Statisticians advising the Infected Blood Inquiry have come up with a number of different figures about how many people have been infected, but they have stressed there is “considerable uncertainty about the conclusions”.
Commentators have suggested that the figures – particularly those around hepatitis C infections – should be seen as a “starting point”.
According to the inquiry’s Statistics Expert Group:
- Around 1,250 people with bleeding disorders such as haemophilia were infected with HIV through infected blood products.
- Some 80 to 100 people were infected with HIV as a result of a blood transfusion – which could have been given following an accident, during surgery, during childbirth or another medical procedure.
- Between 3,650 and 6,250 people with bleeding disorders were infected with hepatitis C – this includes 1,250 people who were infected with both HIV and hepatitis C.
- Some 26,800 people were infected with hepatitis C as a result of having a blood transfusion – though statisticians said this number could vary anywhere between 21,300 and 38,800 people.
- Some 22,000 of these were deemed to be chronically infected as they survived more than six months after their transfusion.
- Among people who received hepatitis C as a result of a blood transfusion, 64 per cent were women.
- Of the 26,800 hepatitis C infections which occurred as a result of a blood transfusion, 22,000 were among patients in England, 2,740 occurred in Scotland, 1,320 in Wales, and 730 patients were infected in Northern Ireland.
- Five people were infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, causing brain damage. They all died.
- The figures do not include people who were “indirectly infected” – such as a partner who caught HIV from a loved one who had been given contaminated blood or a blood product.
- Statisticians said that it is not possible to estimate the numbers of hepatitis B virus infections with “reasonable accuracy”.
It’s been estimated that 3,000 people have died as a result of the infections, while others live with ongoing side effects of infection.
Source: PA
Since it was ordered by Theresa May in 2017, the inquiry has cost more than £130million and heard from hundreds of witnesses that include doctors, politicians, victims, families and scientists.
Kate Burt, chief of the Haemophilia Society, said: “The Infected Blood Inquiry’s findings today will shock every single person in the UK who cares about truth and accountability from our public servants.
“For decades, governments have dismissed the pain and suffering of those impacted by this scandal and refused to acknowledge the enormity of their failure.
“Far too many people have died believing that no Prime Minister would ever take responsibility for what happened to them.
“Never again can such a damaged community be marginalised and ignored by the institutions set up to support them.
“For the sake of the thousands of people who have died and those whose lives continue to be blighted by this terrible scandal, it is vital that the inquiry’s recommendations are acted upon.”
Many of the scandal’s victims were children.
A man who was infected with HIV when he was just 12 years old told The Sun that he hoped the report would shine a light on the “truth of the medical side of things”, but that “it won’t be the end”.
Meanwhile, the father of a boy who was infected with hepatitis C said: “The NHS should have been much more open about what was happening from the beginning.
“It felt like a closed shop right from the start, no one knew what was going on and there was no information out there.
“There was nobody willing to take any responsibility for what had happened and that’s not right.”
Both the viruses can take years or even decades to cause symptoms and many people do not realise they have them – increasing the risk that they miss out on vital treatment and spread them to others.
GP Dr Zoe Williams said: “Anyone who received a blood transfusion, or other blood products, between 1970 and 1991 in the UK could be at risk and should get tested.”
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