A scandal which hit the UK in the 1970s and '80s is to receive an official inquiry. The inquiry will focus on thousands of blood products that were contaminated in both decades, leaving 2,400 people dead and many NHS patients given blood infected with diseases including HIV and hepatitis C.
The inquiry was announced to establish once and for all the causes of the 'appalling injustice' which took place. Families of victims will be consulted about the form the inquiry should take, as this can vary greatly. It may be similar to the Hillsborough inquiry and very much in the public eye, or it may be a judge-led statutory inquiry, Prime Minister Theresa May said. By way of comparison, the inquiry into the recent Grenfell Tower disaster is set to be judge-led.
Credit: PA
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A spokesman speaking to media on behalf of the PM said: "It is a tragedy that has caused immeasurable hardship and pain for all those affected, and a full inquiry to establish the truth of what happened is the right course of action to take. It is going to be a wide-ranging inquiry."
The decision to implement an inquiry was taken after new evidence was found in what is often described as the NHS's biggest treatment disaster. Three men who contracted hepatitis C during the scandal launched an appeal in 2015, arguing that they received (unfairly, in their view) less financial support from the government than HIV patients and were therefore being discriminated against. Their legal case set the precedent for the newly launched investigation.
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A report published by Parliament recently revealed that thousands of people in the UK (approx 7,500) were infected after being treated with blood products from the USA in the '70s and '80s. Many of those infected were treated with a clotting agent - often used to treat haemophiliacs - called Factor VIII, made using donated blood, often from US prisoners. The investigation will look into a scandal which affected thousands of lives in the UK, including family members of those infected, and will probably take some time.
Infected transfusions led to many deaths in the UK but also elsewhere during the '70s and '80s. Perhaps most famously, tennis star Arthur Ashe - the first black player to win Wimbledon, the US and Australian Opens - is believed to have contracted AIDS following a transfusion he had after undergoing heart bypass surgery. He later became a campaigner for AIDS and HIV awareness before his death in 1993.
Sources: BBC, New York Times
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Words: Ronan O'Shea
Topics: Blood