Infected Blood Scandal

During the 1970s, the British government failed to secure the national blood supply needed to research and treat haemophilia. They therefore imported blood products called Factor VIII from the USA. Factor VIII was produced by pooling blood from multiple paid donors, many of whom were high-risk. In the 1980s, the NHS also continued using blood donated by those in UK prisons and borstals, and by US military personnel based in the UK.

The UK did not manage to kill some of the viruses contained in Factor VIII until the mid-1980s allowing it to be used for unethical research on the haemophilia community.

In May 1983 ministers were told to withdraw all blood products produced in the USA after 1978 but the NHS continued to use the products in stock. Contaminated Factor VIII blood was used for research on haemophilia patients until the mid-1980.

As a result, over 30,000 NHS patients were infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C. Almost every person living with haemophilia – approximately 4,800 – was infected with hepatitis C. Over 1,200 of these were also infected with HIV, including 380 children.

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Patients were secretly infected, monitored and not informed of their diagnosis for years. The UK government deliberately destroyed medical records and official documents relating to blood safety.

In Scotland, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) failed to adequately screen blood, much of which was donated by the prison population, a group known to be at higher risk of infection. Despite warnings from the Medicines Inspectorate in 1983, the SNBTS allowed infected blood to be used for a further two years, resulting in 3,000 people being infected in Scotland.

The Penrose Inquiry into what happened in Scotland cost £12m but could not call key witnesses and did not hold anyone accountable.

“The harms done were compounded by a lack of openness, transparency and candour by the NHS and government, such that the truth has been hidden for decades”

Sir Brian Langstaff, Infected Blood Inquiry Report

“I was used for unethical research, assaulted, irreversibly harmed and left to die. I have been lied to, ignored and demonised just as we have seen so many other victims of scandals over the past fifty years”

Mark Ward, campaigner and child victim of the infected blood scandal.