Blood Scandal : UK
The independent investigation into the contaminated blood scandal in the UK is set to release its findings in May 2024.
- People in the National Health Service (NHS) say that this incident is one of the worst cases of bad care in their history.
- The British government plans to give more than £10 billion to people who got HIV or hepatitis from tainted blood products in the 1970s and 1980s as compensation.
- On the eve of the release, there was a vigil in Westminster to remember the victims.
- In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of people, mostly those with hemophilia, got blood products that were tainted with HIV and hepatitis.
- The main cause was the debut of Factor VIII, a blood-clotting agent made from plasma from multiple donors, some of whom were high-risk, like US prisoners and people who use HIV drugs.
- This caused one of the worst medical disasters in terms of how many people were hurt and how many people died.
