Infected blood scandal inquiry: Hepatitis C test warning issued by report – live

More than 30,000 people were given “life-shattering” infections of HIV and hepatitis via the blood products, most of which “could and should have been avoided”, the report released on Monday concluded.

Read the full article from Tara Cobham here:

One of the key recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff in his report is that anyone who received a blood transfusion before 1996 should urgently be offered a test for Hepatitis C.

The virus affects your liver and can often show no symptoms, but can be very serious if left untreated.

A group of victims of the infected blood scandal have called for doctors involved in the scandal to be prosecuted with gross negligence manslaughter.

They said: “Those people should have been in the dock.”

However, more than half a century after the first contaminated blood was transferred in 1970, they said the decades-long delay for a public inquiry to conclude means “so many people will not see justice”.

Andy Evans, chairman of the Tainted Blood campaign group, added: “This has gone on for so long now that people that were around at the time will be very hard to track down if they’re even still alive.”

The delay “really is in this case, justice denied,” he said.

The victims of the contaminated blood scandal have demanded former health secretary Ken Clarke apologises for his “absolutely appalling” behaviour towards the hemophiliac community.

Speaking to reporters after the publication of an inquiry’s damning report into the scandal, the group of victims also said Lord Clarke showed “disdain for the inquiry itself and its process” when he gave evidence.

Many politicians “should hang their heads in shame,” Clive Smith, chairman of The Haemophilia Society, said.

He told a press conference: “No single person is responsible for this scandal. It’s been the result of generations of denial, delay and cover-up.

“And whilst there might be an apology later today from the Prime Minister, it’s not just the Prime Minister who holds responsibility and accountability for this.

“There are many others out there, and I would expect over the coming days and weeks for many more people to come forward and say ‘sorry, I’m sorry for my part’. And if they’re genuinely sorry they will help implement the recommendations that Sir Brian has recommended today.”

Victims of the contaminated blood scandal said they felt “validated and vindicated” by the inquiry’s final report into the scandal.

Andy Evans, chairman of the Tainted Blood campaign group, told a press conference that it was a “momentous day”.

“Sometimes we felt like we were shouting into the wind during the last 40 years…

“Today proves that it can happen in the UK and I just feel validated and vindicated by Sir Brian and his report today.”

Campaigners have said the finding in the Infected Blood Inquiry final report that there is evidence of a cover-up is “no surprise”.

Clive Smith, from the Haemophilia Society, said: “To our community that is no surprise. We have known that for decades and now the country knows and now the world knows as well.”

He added that it was “systemic”.

Andy Evans, of campaign group Tainted Blood, told a press conference at Central Hall: “We have been gaslit for generations. This report today brings an end to that. It looks to the future as well and says this cannot continue, this ethos of denial and cover up.”

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff said that the contaminated blood disaster is “no accident” and that people who put their trust in doctors and the government were “betrayed”.

He told broadcasters: “What I have been looking at are people from families across the UK who have gone into hospital for treatment and over 30,000 have come out with infections which were life-shattering.

“And 3,000 of those have died and deaths keep on happening week-by-week. What I have found is that disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to keep them safe and that trust was betrayed.

“Then the government compounded that agony by telling them that nothing wrong had been done, that they’d had the best available treatment and that as soon as tests were available they were introduced and both of those statements were untrue.

“That’s why what I’m recommending is that compensation must be paid now and I have made various other recommendations to help make the future of the NHS better and treatment safer.”

The victims of the contaminated blood scandal have accused the government and the NHS of “deliberate attempts to lie and conceal”.

Speaking at a press conference following the publication of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s damning report, a group of victims said: “There was a deliberate attempt to lie and conceal – not just by one person, this was systemic – by government and public health care officials. It really rocks what we think we know of as a society.”

Read the full article from our health correspondent Rebecca Thomas here: