Families need truth over blood scandal

THE infection of thousands of patients – mainly haemophilia sufferers – with hepatitis and HIV through contaminated blood supplies is one of the darkest chapters in the annals of the NHS.

Up to 2,000 died as a result of being given tainted batches of plasma containing the clotting agent known as ‘Factor VIII’ in the 1970s and 80s.

The plasma was imported from the US, where ‘high-risk’ groups, including drug addicts, prostitutes and prisoners, were allowed to donate blood for cash.

Today, this murky story takes an even more sinister turn as the Mail reveals that public health officials were perfectly well aware how dangerous this infected plasma was as early as 1980.

Devastating documents unearthed at the National Archive and through Freedom of Information prove government scientists were so sure these patients would contract hepatitis that they planned to use them as guinea pigs to develop a new blood test for the disease.

Victims’ families are preparing to sue the Department of Health over the scandal. But in the light of this chilling new evidence, don’t they deserve a full public inquiry?