What is the UK’s Contaminated Blood Scandal That Resulted in 3000 Catastrophic Deaths?

An independent investigation into Britain’s tainted blood scandal has recommended that the country compensate thousands of people affected with HIV or hepatitis with over 10 billion pounds ($12.70 billion), according to a report released on Monday, May 20. 

The contaminated blood scandal is one of the deadliest health disasters in the history of the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).

In response to thousands of patients affected by tainted blood in a decades-long scam that a damning investigation revealed was hushed up and mostly preventable, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed regret on Monday.

Sunak apologized sincerely to the House of Commons, referring to the long-awaited report’s conclusions as “a day of shame for the British state.”

It has been six years since Theresa May was Prime Minister and the inquiry was launched. The study was supposed to reveal how tens of thousands contracted fatal diseases from transfusions of contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. It estimated that by 2019 nearly 3,000 people have died from complications. In October 2022, British authorities made interim payments of £100,000 to each surviving and deceased relative.

What Is Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) ?

Established by the National Health Service Act 1946 and subsequent legislation in 1948, the NHS is a public health service that operates under statutory authority and is considered ‘comprehensive’. It covers the entire UK population and health services are provided free of charge to the public, subject to certain minimum charges.

There are four services that make up the NHS namely, NHS England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. It is the biggest non-military public organization in the world, the fifth largest employer in the world, and it has considerable market power. 

The NHS is generally seen as an effective and efficient health service, despite some recent problems post-Brexit. NHS medical services are managed in three different groups: GP and dental services, hospital and specialist services and local health authority services.

What Is The Contaminated Blood Scandal?

Many thousands of persons with the blood-clotting disorder hemophilia received blood donations or sales from individuals who were HIV and hepatitis positive in the 1970s and 1980s. Individuals who need blood transfusions following surgery or childbirth were also given tainted blood.

The NHS began employing a novel hemophilia medication known as Factor VIII in the early 1970s. This was a medicinal product that had been produced using a variety of plasma donors. For individuals with Von Willebrand Syndrome, a bleeding illness in which the patient’s blood cannot clot completely, and classical hemophilia, factor VIII was regarded as a “wonder drug” that was more effective and convenient than previous therapies.

Because of the nature of Factor VIII, the protein batch as a whole could be compromised by even one infected donor. The commodity that the NHS utilized was imported from the United States, where at the time, a significant amount of donated plasma came from drug users and inmates who received payment for their blood.

According to the investigation report, an estimated 30,000 or more persons had either hepatitis C, HIV, or both, in the instance of 1,250 people who were haemophilic. According to The Guardian, 380 youngsters had HIV infections and the majority of hep C infections were found in transfusion recipients.

According to a research by The Independent, over two-thirds of people who contracted HIV went on to die from AIDS-related diseases, and an undetermined number of them infected their partners with the virus. According to the report, 2,400–5,000 blood donors acquired hepatitis C; however, the precise number is unknown because the illness might manifest years after donation.

What Has Happened Since Then?

According to an AP story, victims and their families requested compensation in the late 1980s on the grounds of medical negligence.

The government allegedly established a charity in the early 1990s to provide one-time support payments to HIV-positive individuals, but it refused to acknowledge responsibility for the payments. In exchange for the money, victims allegedly felt under pressure to sign a release promising not to sue the UK Department of Health.

Activists continued to apply pressure in the meanwhile. The Infected Blood Inquiry was established in 2017 thanks in large part to the effort led by Jason Evans, whose father passed away at age 31 in 1993 from HIV and hepatitis contracted from an infected blood plasma product. At the time, Prime Minister May was the driving force behind this decision.

May called the incident “an appalling tragedy which should simply never have happened” in a statement to Parliament at the time.

The inquiry’s chair, former High Court judge Sir Brian Langstaff, was announced in February 2018. On July 2, 2018, the inquiry commenced subsequent to the declaration of its terms of reference, which delineate the subjects and methods of investigation.

Initial hearings were held in September 2018 in London. From April 2019 until December 2022, the investigation panel heard testimony from persons impacted and infected in public. Final oral submissions were accepted until the inquiry’s end day, which is February 3, 2023.

Although many of the victims have already passed away over time, the study is expected to criticize pharmaceutical companies, doctors, civil authorities, and politicians in addition to demanding enormous compensations for the victims and their families.