Scandal over the use of contaminated blood in the United Kingdom

London (EFE).- The public health system and the British government “covered up” the scandal of contaminated blood transfusions in the United Kingdom for decades because victims were knowingly exposed to “unacceptable” risks, according to a report released on Monday.

More than 30,000 people were reportedly infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood transfusions.

The five-year investigation in the United Kingdom by former judge Brian Langstaff determined that the patients’ infection and deaths were not an “accident” but were “largely avoidable,” according to findings released today.

deaths continue

The former magistrate in charge of the investigation said the contaminated blood disaster “continues to happen” to this day, as some affected patients “continue to die every week.”

Among the errors found, it was reported that health authorities were “too slow” to respond to risks and a “failure in licensing arrangements” was identified for imports (from donors in the United States), which “they understood” were less safe than national treatments.”

“The inefficient and fragmented donation system in the United Kingdom at the time meant that there were failures to ensure adequate supplies of so-called Factor VIII from British donors,” the document said.

“Unsafe” treatments in children

There is also evidence to suggest that there were children who were subjected to “unnecessary” “unsafe” treatment and some were used as “research objects” while being exposed to hepatitis and HIV in a school in the country. The risks of the student’s hemophilia were ignored.

Regarding the case that occurred at the Lord Mayor Treloar College boarding school in the English county of Hampshire (England) in the 70s and 80s, “very few (of the treated students) survived being infected” and according to the 1970 And of the 122 students with hemophilia who attended that center between 1987 and 1987, only 30 are still alive today.

More than 30,000 patients may be affected

The scandal arose during the above decades, when thousands of people requiring blood transfusions and medicines for haemophilia in the Public Health Service (NHS) were exposed to blood contaminated with HIV, hepatitis B, C and chronic viral diseases as a result of shortages . Of the analysis that governs donations.

The use of blood contaminated with hepatitis C continued until 1991, two years after the virus was formally identified.

Apparently, more than 30,000 public health patients may have been infected, and approximately 2,900 adults and children died as a result of one of the largest health disasters in the country’s history over the past few years.

In the 1970s, a new treatment for hemophilia was introduced that required large amounts of blood reserves, forcing the United Kingdom to import it from the United States, where donors—many of them—were at risk. There were groups such as drug addicts, sex workers and prisoners. – Received payment for their blood.