HIV and Haemophilia Scandal
posted: 27/01/2009
The long-running scandal of the government's role in the HIV and hepatitis contamination of blood products given to haemophiliacs in this country in the 1980s rolls on. The government is now accused of withholding documents that could be vital to uncovering how thousands of haemophiliacs became infected with hepatitis C and HIV through blood products, such as Factor 8.
35 papers kept secret by Department of Health
Although the Department of Health has handed over thousands of papers to an independent public inquiry chaired by Lord Archer of Sandwell, the MP Jenny Willott has discovered through a parliamentary question that 35 documents are being withheld, many on the grounds of commercial interest.
"It is appalling that after 20 years, the government is still withholding information on one of the biggest health disasters this country has ever seen," said Willott.
Archer's inquiry, which is expected to report within weeks, was set up after the government persistently refused to hold an Inquiry. Jenny Willott MP, says the government ought to have given it official backing.
companies' profits protected after lives lost
"Over three-quarters of those who contracted HIV through contaminated NHS blood are now dead," she said. "The surviving victims' health has been ruined and thousands of others suffer from the daily effects of hepatitis C infection. Yet the UK government has consistently resisted calls for an inquiry. How can the government put private companies' interests, dating back to the 1980s, ahead of the right of the infected and the families of the deceased to know how this dreadful saga was able to happen?
"If the government had backed the independent Archer inquiry, the inquiry team would have had access to all the relevant information. Instead, potentially, crucial information will not be considered by Lord Archer. The Department of Health didn't even send anyone to give evidence to the inquiry.
"The government cannot hide from this issue forever. Hundreds of MPs from all parties support the surviving victims' right for justice and we will be picking up the mantle from Lord Archer when he reports in the next month."
Dan Farthing of the Haemophilia Society said: "By withholding vital evidence, the department are showing a profound lack of respect, not only to the inquiry and those who have given painful personal testimony to it, but to the thousands of families affected by the disaster. Commercial interests should not be put ahead of the effort to find out what went wrong, learn the necessary lessons and improve safety in the future. When the report is published we hope that the department will set aside its defensive approach and work constructively to address the injustices that have been highlighted."
More than 1,200 people were infected with HIV and 4,800 with hepatitis C after using contaminated imported blood and blood products such as factor 8 in the late 1970s and 1980s. Two-thirds are now dead.
The Archer inquiry heard that there was a government target to end the importation of blood in the mid-1970s, but it was not met. The shortfall was met, not by increasing UK production, but by importing blood products made from the blood of paid-for donors in USA cities who had high risk lifestyles. (People who donate blood for money in the USA tend to be poor, unhealthy and desperate)
The UK health department knew of the risk of HIV contaminated blood as early as 1983. The government claim they chose providing essential treatment for haemophiliacs despite the risks of HIV and hepatitis infections. In 1985 the National Blood Service (NBS) introduced HIV screening for donated blood, and since this time only three people have been infected with HIV in this way.
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