The contamination and subsequent death of 2,400 Britons to date have too long been a dark spot on Britains history. This is especially true because it encompassed a failure by an institution that has the mandate to make people get better health wise, never to infect them with deadly diseases.
Hepatitis C is a disease which according to the NHS website has about 215,000 known people knowingly living with the disease. It hardly shows symptoms until later in the infection when it has now done significant damage to the liver sometimes in late stages causing liver cancer.
Nowadays it is a manageable disease, curable after medication for a specified amount of time.
Hepatitis, like HIV, is passed mainly from blood to blood contact. HIV is a well-known disease, especially well known because it still does not have a cure although there is a lot of research in developing one and that has propelled the types of medicines available to people living with the disease.
These drugs make it possible for rape victims to be cured of the disease if treated withing a close window of time they are called post-exposure drugs or PEP. There is no medical agreement on the time limit for administering PEP. Some healthcare workers suggest beginning PEP 24-36 hours after possible exposure to HIV through rape or unprotected sex; other international guidelines recommend 24-48 hours.
South African policy advises that PEP should be administered within 72 hours after the potential exposure to HIV.
There is no medical agreement on the time limit for administering PEP. Some healthcare workers suggest beginning it 24-36 hours after possible exposure to HIV through rape or unprotected sex, other international guidelines suggest 24-48 hours.
South African policy advises that PEP should be administered within 72 hours after the potential exposure to HIV. The drugs should then be taken without fail for 28 days with subsequent regular visits for check up after finishing the dose.
Scotland also had its Inquiry into the incident back in 2015, it took six years and was criticised by families of victims when it made just one recommendation and did not apportion blame.
The inquiry cost £11.3 million, and was branded a “waste of time and money.” Let's hope this new one will be done right and will bring back some evidence and provide closure to victims of this sad event.
A possibility of criminal activity involved in the scandal
As this is a public inquiry, it will join the Grenfell Tower inquiry, both of which caused mass death of people. The contaminated blood inquiry comes after years of lobbying and requests from victims for it to be done. There is a possibility that there was some criminal activity involved in the whole debacle. In the 1970's and 80's the UK used to get some blood from the US which at the time did not do Hepatitis C screening among other screens to make sure that the blood is pure.
The UK imported supplies of the clotting agent Factor VIII from the US, some of which turned out to be infected. At the time the US used to pay donors for blood, and both the UK and US both took blood from inmates too, adding substantial risk to the whole process. A note, penned by the leaders of Labour, the DUP, the Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, said those involved in the scandal should be compelled to participate. "We believe those affected have a right to know what went wrong and why. "Amongst many other considerations, it is alleged that victims' medical details were tampered with to hide the cause of their infections," the letter added.
Inquiry officially commissioned at Parliament
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Cabinet this morning that thousands of people had died after being infected with Hepatitis C and HIV from NHS blood products in the 1970s and 80s.“The Prime Minister told Cabinet that she and the Health Secretary had decided that an inquiry should take place into the Contaminated Blood Scandal,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said this morning.
In other news, Theresa May ordered the Conservative party’s chief whip to suspend an MP who used the N-word at an event during a discussion about Brexit. Anne Marie Morris, the MP for Newton Abbot in Devon, said sorry for causing offence with her use of the word after a string of opposition politicians accused her of racism. However, the prime minister decided to suspend the whip from Morris after saying the remarks were shocking and unacceptable.
