Around 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood imported from the US to meet the demand for blood-clotting treatments in the 1970s-1980s.
A six-year-long public inquiry into the scandal has described it “horrifying”, and found that “the disaster was not an accident”.
Inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff while announcing the report, said those in authority — doctors, the National Health Service (NHS), and governments — committed the ultimate folly in healthcare and healing: they “did not put patient safety first”.
The UK government said a compensation scheme is being set up, and that some victims will receive interim payments of £210,000 from the summer onwards, as mentioned in a BBC report.
How Many Died Of Infected Blood
A public inquiry was commissioned in 2017 to examine the “circumstances in which men, women and children treated by National Health Services… were given infected blood and infected blood products” since 1970.
The NHS groups were divided into two: those with haemophilia (similar blood disorders), and people who received blood transfusions during surgeries and childbirth.
Haemophilia is a rare genetic condition where the blood does not clot properly.
In the 1970s, a new treatment using donated human blood plasma was developed to replace these clotting agents called Factor VIII and Factor IX. But the batches were contaminated with deadly viruses.
After being given the infected treatments, 1,250 people in the UK with bleeding disorders developed both HIV and Hepatitis C, including 380 children. Around two-third died later due to AIDS-related illnesses, as per the BBC.
Another 2,400 to 5,000 people developed hepatitis C on its own, which can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer. It is difficult to know the exact number since the symptoms for Hepatitis C take decades to appear.
A second group of patients were given contaminated blood transfusions after childbirth, surgery or other medical treatment between 1970 and 1991.
The inquiry estimates between 80 and 100 of these people were infected with HIV, and about 27,000 with Hepatitis C.
In total, it’s thought about 2,900 people have died.
The Haemophilia Society estimates 650 people infected with contaminated blood products have died since the inquiry was announced in 2017.
An infected person still dies every four days in the UK, per one estimate. Deaths and infections linked to contaminated blood were also recorded in Australia, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and the US.
What Has the Inquiry Said?
The 2,527-page report, divided into seven volumes, inspects the chronology of events, why they happened and why. It said people were “failed not once, but repeatedly”. Patient safety was ignored; decision-making was “slow and protracted”; people’s autonomy and privacy were neglected; clinical freedom was abused; governments and NHS officials were defensive; the lack of transparency and accountability amplified the injustice “to the people whose lives had been destroyed by infection”.
Doctors, haemophilia centres, pharma companies were guilty of “giving too many transfusions when they were not clinically needed, or when less would have sufficed, or overriding a patient’s wish not to be transfused.” Moreover, licences for US imports were given in 1973 and subsequent decades, despite evidence that found “commercially manufactured blood products…were less safe than either NHS concentrate or cryoprecipitate”.
Nothing was done to stop importing blood products from abroad, which used blood from high-risk donors such as prisoners and drug addicts. In the UK, blood donations were accepted from high-risk groups such as prisoners until 1986. Blood products were not heat treated to eliminate HIV until the end of 1985, there was hardly any testing done to reduce the risk of hepatitis, from the 1970s onwards, as per the inquiry report, mentioned in the BBC.
Some patients’ testimonies revealed the impact on their personal lives; bereavement and stigma of disease; and loss of trust in healthcare.
There were delays in informing patients of infections, sometimes for years; when informed, practitioners failed to “explain these devastating diagnoses privately, in person and with sensitivity.”
What’s Next?
The UK government has published a document setting out the amounts that individuals can expect.
For example, a person infected with HIV can expect to receive compensation of between £2.2m and £2.6m. These are average ranges rather than upper and lower limits.
Those with a chronic hepatitis C infection, defined as lasting more than six months, could expect to receive between £665,000 and £810,000.
The partner of someone infected with HIV who is still alive today should expect to receive around £110,000, while a child could get £55,000.
One of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations is to create an enabling environment where the “patient voice is heard”. “We have to engage with and listen to patient opinions and concerns and act upon them,” Dr Kate Khair, a nurse and Director of Research at Haemnet, says, as quoted by The Hindu. “We can, and should, learn from this — all care that we give needs to be assessed.”
Blood products should only be used when necessary, and should be regularly screened for known viruses.