Infected Blood Scandal

A bit surprised there isnt a thread on this already.

I think the fact that patients were knowingly given infected blood is the most horrendous part about all this, and even patients where there was no clinical need for a transfusion.

Surely the US has some responsibility somewhere along the line?

https://news.sky.com/story/infected-blood-scandal-...

I've been following this the last few weeks, it's absolutely baffling that this happened - it's more than just incompetence here, criminal covering up of evidence and needs proper criminal investigation and prosecution to start...

I heard some of the campaigners on the radio earlier and I believe part of the problem is that this has dragged on so long that many of the heads that should roll are simply dead.

Standard Govt tactics for things like this, drag it out for as long as possible so that the vast majority who could claim have died.

TX.

Yes - what it needed was a TV drama. That's not a dig at PHers though - after all, I could have started one. It's more about the more general low profile the subject has had. I have been wondering if it's an even bigger deal than the Post Office.

We have a family friend who lost her brother due to this.

Poor sod had battled leukaemia for years and had just about beaten it and contracted something grim via blood transfusion and died.

I have been following this...for 30 years. I worked for the company that brought in the first generation of blood products that had viral inactivation in them. Whilst it no doubt saved lives, a lot of damage was already done.

The scale of this is genuinely massive and I will read the report with interest and sadness no doubt.

One of the key problems with blood products was that the process that concentrates proteins such as FVIII and FIX also concentrated viruses when they were present. Ways around that were better screening of blood (plasma) donors, but that came too late...after the viruses were discovered. And inactivation. HIV and HCV are lipid enveloped and susceptible to being destroyed by solvents, so once this brought on, safety improved massively. Some such blood products are still in use today. They are life saving. In other cases, patients receive recombinant products...so not made from blood per se.

Some of these patients became friends and some still survive, but not in the best if health.

It was heartening to see Sunak and Starmer sharing the platform in the Commons today and relaying the same sentiment.

Lessons will be learned from this. At last.

What staggers me iis that the government have managed to avoid doing anything about this / acknowledging responsibility in 40 years. I remember seeing reports on panorama or world in action in the early 80’s about infected blood products from America.

The french dealt with this in the ‘90’s

I will add. USA blood products did get a bad press, and sometimes with very good reason. However, UK blood products were no better. In the late 1990s, and in a move towards self sufficiency, the UK purchased plasmaphoresis centres in the UK. Why would they do that? Because there were new concerns over the safety of UK blood, this time from BSE. Bit of a rock and hard place....but there have been no ongoing problems with blood and blood products in the UK since. It suggests that the approach taken was justified.

Just watch the tardiness when it comes to paying out...apparently 70% involved have died already...wait a few more years and save x amount of money. Disgusting.

Same as the PO Scandal and delayed WASPI women etc.