Inquiry launched into contaminated blood

An independent public inquiry has been launched into how haemophilia patients in the UK became infected with deadly viruses due to supplies of contaminated blood.

More than 5,000 people were infected with hepatitis C, while more than 1,200 people were infected with HIV from contaminated blood, during the 1970s and 1980s.

More than 1,700 patients have since died, while many more are terminally ill.

Haemophilia is an inherited bleeding disorder, which does not allow blood to clot normally. The condition can only be treated by using injections of the clotting agent Factor 8.

Currently, the protein can be created through recombinant technology. However, in the early 1970s, the protein was derived from the pooled plasma of thousands of donors, much of which came from people in the US, including prisoners and others who were allowed to sell their blood.

It later emerged that some of the blood was infected with hepatitis C and, in 1981, it was also found that some plasma products were infected with HIV.

Plasma products have been treated with heat in order to kill viruses since the mid-Eighties.

BBC's 'Newsnight' programme has alleged that doctors were aware of the possible risks of using the new products, but allowed the transfusions to go ahead.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health expressed sympathy for those infected with the viruses, but said that the government at the time had acted in "good faith", relying on the information that was available at that time.

The inquiry will be led by Labour peer Lord Archer, a former solicitor general, and the report is due to be published in the late summer.

Roddy Morrison, Haemophilia Society Chairman, described the announcement of the inquiry as an "historic day". He said: "An entire generation of people with haemophilia have gone unheard. It is particularly important that the inquiry will be examining the consequences of the disaster for the haemophilia community for those living with infections. Many have suffered unduly with financial hardship; some have even had to give up their homes. Many more have found themselves to be uninsurable, unemployable and unable to make adequate provision for their dependants."

(KMcA/JM)