Infected blood scandal: Report into worst treatment disaster in NHS history being published
Key points
- Final report into worst treatment disaster in NHS history will be published at 12.30pmMore than 30,000 people in UK were inadvertently infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in 1970s and 1980sAround 3,000 died after infected blood products were imported from US to treat patients with blood clotting disordersThe inquiry, led by former judge Sir Brian Langstaff, heard evidence between 2019 and 2023Live reporting by Ollie Cooper and Brad Young
10:54:00 ‘Every Mother’s Day my heart breaks as I remember my loss’
Pamela Pennycook, 54, was 11 when she received a contaminated blood transfusion.
“The day I received my blood transfusion changed my life forever and I am so angry!
“I lost my leg due to unexplained infections when I was 19. ”
Shortly after she received her Hepatitis C diagnosis she found out she was pregnant.
“After discussions with health professionals I made the heart-breaking decision to terminate my pregnancy as there was a risk I could pass on the virus to my child.
“I am not a mother and never will be. Every Mother’s Day my heart breaks as I remember my loss.”
Stories from 100 people affected by the infected blood scandal have been collected by Sky News. You can read them here:
10:21:08 Doctor in blood scandal says patients infected with HIV and Hepatitis C is ‘worst thing you can imagine’
By Tom Clarke, science and technology editor
Edward Tuddenham is one of the few remaining haemophilia specialists to have treated patients at the beginning of the infected blood scandal in the early 1970s.
To have infected patients with HIV and hepatitis C in the course of treating them “is the worst thing you can imagine”, he said.
Prof Tuddenham went on to be one of the UK’s leading haematologists, isolating the gene that makes the key Factor VIII protein lacking in many people suffering bleeding disorders.
His discovery led to safe treatments for haemophilia that do not require the use of potentially contaminated donated human blood – the ultimate cause of the infected blood scandal.
But he has been marred by his role in that controversy for nearly his entire career.
Read the full story by Tom Clarke here…
09:49:19 What is the infected blood scandal?
The infected blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.
It saw an estimated 30,000 people given blood transfusions or blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis viruses from 1970 to the early 1990s.
Some 26,800 people are estimated to have been infected with hepatitis C after receiving blood transfusions – which can be needed following accidents or childbirth complications.
As many as 5,000 people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders were treated with contaminated blood products. Almost all of them were infected with hepatitis C and around 1,250 people were also infected with HIV, including 380 children.
Some of those infected with HIV unintentionally passed on the virus to their partners.
An estimated 2,900 people had died as a result of the scandal by 2019.
How did it happen?
The UK was not self-sufficient in blood donations in the early 1970s, so the government looked to the US for supplies to meet rising demand.
Batches of Factor VIII – an essential blood clotting protein which haemophiliacs do not produce naturally – started to be imported and used widely to treat the condition.
But much of it had been manufactured with blood collected from prisoners, drug addicts and other high-risk groups who were paid to give blood.
When the plasma was pooled together, it would take just one person carrying a virus to potentially infect an entire batch.
People were infected as donated blood was not tested for HIV until 1986 and hepatitis C until 1991.
09:26:44 What will the report set out?
After years of campaigns and a nearly six-year inquiry, today’s report will finally lay out how more than 30,000 people came to be infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products.
The inquiry said the report “will set out and explain the many failings at systemic, collective and individual levels over more than six decades”.
It’s not known what the report will say in terms of payouts – but chair Sir Brian Langstaff has previously recommended that work begin immediately to develop a compensation system.
Announcing the second delay to its publication back in January, the inquiry said finalising a report “of this magnitude, in terms of the sheer scale and seriousness of the criticisms, is complex”.
Those who took part in the inquiry will see the report in advance of it being published later today. Sir Brian will then make his remarks after it is made public.
08:29:43 Hello and welcome to our live coverage
It’s a hugely significant day as a public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal publishes its long-awaited final report after months of delays.
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given NHS blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Around 3,000 died after infected blood products were imported from the United States to treat patients with blood clotting disorders.
The inquiry, led by former judge Sir Brian Langstaff, heard evidence between 2019 and 2023.
A final report was initially slated to be published last autumn, but was delayed twice after Sir Brian requested more time to complete the “mammoth task”.
We’ll bring you all of the report’s main findings right here, as well as the reaction from surviving victims, relatives and campaigners, so stay with us.
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