‘Hundreds more’ children contracted HIV from infected blood

ABOUT 380 children were infected with HIV through blood products in the UK, an inquiry has concluded.

Thousands of patients of all ages were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

It had previously been suggested that at least 175 children were infected, but an inquiry looking into the scandal has estimated the number to be more than double.

Jenni Richards KC, counsel to the Infected Blood Inquiry, wrote: “The inquiry’s current view of the number of children likely to have been infected with HIV through blood products in the UK is that the figure of 175 derives from the HIV haemophilia litigation as the number who were still children at the time of the settlement.

“The inquiry estimates that the number of people who were children when infected is more than two times that number.”

The 380 children who were infected make up almost a third of the total number of victims, believed to be about 1,250. The inquiry came to the estimate after basing it on the proportion of children among people with bleeding disorders, data published in The Lancet in 1996 and figures provided by the UK Haemophilia Doctors’ Organisation.

The scandal occurred after the UK struggled to keep up with demand for treatments tackling the blood-clotting condition haemophilia and other bleeding disorders, and began importing products from overseas, some of which was contaminated.

About 2,400 people died in what has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

Most of those involved had relied on regular injections of the US product Factor VIII to survive.

They were unaware the products came from people paid to give blood, including prisoners and drug addicts.

Patients were injected for years despite repeated warnings at the top of government. And some victims were infected after blood transfusions.

New cases of HIV and hepatitis continued to be diagnosed decades after the first contaminations, resulting in many early deaths.