UK ‘infected blood’ report exposes biggest health scandal which left 3k dead
Image credit X NHS UK
UK infected blood report reveals decades-long cover up of biggest health scandal
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, May 20: A multi-year investigation into one of the biggest health scandals in the UK has revealed cases of infecting patients with HIV, and other deadly viruses while also destruction of documents in cover up operations. The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is set to express regret for the scandal within the eight-decade old National Health Service (NHS).
“It will be astonishing to anyone who reads the Report that these events could have happened in the UK. It will also be surprising that questions asking why so many deaths and infections occurred have not had answers before now,” wrote Brian Langstaff of the ‘Infected Blood Enquiry’ in the report.
The investigations found out that patients were administered infected bloods to patients, some on pretext of being given wonder drugs, which left about 3000 people dead and several others with lifelong health ailments.
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The report has asked the UK government to announce compensation to the tune of $12 billion to the victims of the decades-long infected blood treatment scandal in the country.
The report quoted several cases in voluminous documents to nail the cover up at the government level, while also implicating the medical professionals. “Stephen MartinHanley’s mother had heard rumours that the Factor VIII treatment was potentially dangerous and therefore didn’t want me put on it; however Dr Hill and Sister Marion assured her that the product was completely safe,” the report stated while citing a case.
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Stephen, the patient, was infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. The report also quoted Lynda and James Heatlie sharing that “the Factor 8 their late son Brian was receiving came from America and was ‘refined like fine wine not like British rough plonk’.” Brian was infected with HIV.
The report also mentioned another patient, Steven Newby, saying that “my parents raised the question of the risk of infection and Dr Ludlam described the risk of me contracting an infection from the treatment for my haemophilia as ‘infinitesimally small’.”
The investigation examined cases of treatment of patients with infected blood, as well as wonder drugs, from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Th victims were recipients of bloods for treatments for accidents and small medical conditions.
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Former Prime Minister of the UK, Theresa May, had commissioned an enquiry into the infected blood cases. The report revealed that the cover up was done by destroying documents at the NHS.
“A level of suffering which is difficult to comprehend, still less understand, has been caused, and this harm has been compounded by the reaction of successive governments, NHS bodies, other public bodies, the medical profession and others,” wrote Langstaff in the report.
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