From the 1970s to the early 1990s, tens of thousands of people were infected with hepatitis C and HIV as a result of receiving infected blood or infected clotting factor products in the United Kingdom.[2] Many of the products were imported from the United States, and distributed to patients by the National Health Service.[3][4] Most recipients had haemophilia or had received a blood transfusion following childbirth or surgery.[5] It has been estimated that more than 30,000 patients received contaminated blood, resulting in the deaths of at least 3,000 people.[4] In July 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May announced an independent public inquiry into the scandal, for which she was widely praised as successive governments going back to the 1980s had refused such an inquiry.[6] May stated that "the victims and their families who have suffered so much pain and hardship deserve answers as to how this could possibly have happened."[7] The final report was published in seven volumes on 20 May 2024, concluding that the scandal could have been largely avoided, patients were knowingly exposed to "unacceptable risks", and that doctors, the government and NHS tried to cover up what happened by "hiding the truth".[8][9]
People with haemophilia were principally infected via the plasma-derived product known as factor VIII, a processed pharmaceutical product sourced from the United States and elsewhere. The creation of these products involved dangerous plasma donation pooling manufacturing processes that led to infected products.[10] Large groups of paid donors were used, as many as 60,000 per batch, and included prisoners and drug addicts. It only required one infected donor to contaminate an entire batch, which would then infect all of the recipients.[11]
This was at a time when the practice of paying donors for whole blood in the United States had effectively ceased. The UK did not import whole blood[12] from abroad, but it did import large quantities of factor VIII given to those infected, as described in the documentary Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal. The UK imported these products because it did not produce enough of its own, and efforts to achieve self-sufficiency were inadequately funded.[13][14] A study published in 1986 showed that 76% of those who received commercial clotting-factor products became infected with HIV, as opposed to none of those who only received the previous treatment – cryoprecipitate.[15]
While then Prime Minister David Cameron apologised[16] on behalf of the British government to those affected, no government, healthcare or pharmaceutical entity in the UK has formally admitted any liability in the scandal. As part of an ongoing public inquiry, 3,000 surviving victims were awarded interim compensation payments in August 2022, to be paid urgently due to the extremely high death rate of survivors.[17]
On 20 May 2024, the six year long "Infected Blood Inquiry" was finally reported covering more than 2000 pages "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS".[18]
On the following day, 21 May 2024, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, John Glen, announced a new Infected Blood Compensation Authority to administer a new compensation scheme for victims.[19]
Before the development of Factor VIII gene therapy,[23] there was no long-term cure for haemophilia. Treatment and prevention of bleeding episodes is done primarily by replacing the missing blood clotting factors using "synthetic" or "non-human derived" factor products such as recombinant factor VIII.[24] Factor products work by replacing the missing factor proteins, which can take place at home or in hospital. In the 1970s, haemophiliacs began to be treated with "factor concentrates", which were sold as a revolutionary treatment. In the 1980s, it was discovered that many of these concentrates were contaminated by hepatitis viruses and HIV.[25] The concentrates were contaminated as a result of the way plasma was sourced and collected. The creation of these products involved dangerous manufacturing processes. Large groups of paid donors were used, as many as 60,000 per batch, and included prisoners and drug addicts.[26]
Some of the most notorious examples of risky plasma harvesting are those of Luckner Cambronne, who became known as "The Vampire of the Caribbean" for his profiting from the sale of Haitian blood to the West for medical uses,[27] and also Crysosan Ltd, a company based in Canada that was found guilty of harvesting plasma from the bodies of dead Russians and re-labelling it as originating from Swedish donors.[28][29][30]
Products
Plasma donations could be collected using a process called plasmapheresis. In addition to NHS-derived factors produced by Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), manufacturers that supplied clotting factor products to the UK during the mid-1970s and 1980s included Abbott (Profilate), Armour Pharmaceuticals (Factorate), Bayer-owned Cutter (Koate), Baxter International-owned Travenol/Hyland (Hemofil/Interhem), Immuno (Kryobulin) and Speywood (Humanate).[31][32]
BPL: In 2013 the British government sold an 80% stake in the company to Bain Capital for approximately £230 million.[33] In 2016 BPL was acquired by the Creat Group for £820m;[34] the government stood to receive £164m from its remaining 20% share in BPL.
Armour (Revlon): In 1978 Armour was purchased by Revlon for $90m.[35] It owned the company until 1987, when it was sold to Rhône-Poulenc which purchased Revlon's drug operation for $690m in cash.[36] In 1996, Armour and Behringwerke merged, and became Centeon. In 1999, Centeon changed its name to Aventis Behring after the parent companies, Rorer and Hoechst AG merged to become Aventis. In 2004, CSL completed its acquisition of Aventis Behring for $925m, today known as CSL Behring.[37]
Bayer: Cutter Labs, which produced factor VIII, was originally owned by Miles Laboratories. In 1974, Cutter Labs was purchased by Bayer. In 1978, Bayer also purchased Miles Labs. In 1995, Bayer dropped the Miles Labs brand name.[38] In 2005, a new company, Talecris[39] set up by Cerberus Capital Management and Ampersand,[40] acquired Bayer's plasma business and assets for $590m. Bayer did not include its recombinant factor VIII "Kogenate" in the sale. "Kogenate" was discontinued in 2022.[41] In 2009, CSL Limited attempted to take over Talecris for $3.1 billion, but was stopped by the Federal Trade Commission[42] which determined the deal would be illegal. In 2011, a year after announcing the $4bn deal, Grifols completed a takeover of Talecris.[43]
Hyland/Travenol (Baxter): Baxter created Travenol Labs in 1949 and acquired Hyland Labs in 1952.[44] In 1993 Baxter, was implicated in a lawsuit brought by haemophiliacs infected with HIV in the United States,[45] and, by the end of that year, president James Tobin had quit.[46] In 1996 Baxter settled a lawsuit brought by haemophiliacs in Japan.[47] In 2015, Baxter split-off its haemophilia sector to create Baxalta.[48] In 2016 Baxalta was acquired by Shire plc for $32bn.[49]
Immuno AG: Baxter purchased Immuno AG in 1996 in an effort to keep up with competitors, for $715m.[50][51]
Hepatitis (1973-1986)
The dangers of factor concentrates had been raised since their inception. In 1974, American scientist Judith Graham Pool, who previously discovered the frozen blood product cryoprecipitate, a safer treatment, described the products as "dangerous" and "unethical", and warned against their use. The World Health Organization also warned the UK not to import blood from countries with a high prevalence of hepatitis, such as the United States.[52]
In May 1975, the World Health Organization passed a widely circulated resolution urging all countries to aim at self-sufficiency in blood products.
In September 1975, an article was published detailing occurrences of a new kind of hepatitis.[53]
In December 1975, an episode of the World in Action programme highlighted the danger of hepatitis from imported clotting-factor products.[54]
By the end of 1978, more than 50% of the factor VIII used in England was being imported from overseas. This was because the UK had failed to become self-sufficient in its own supplies.[55]
The BPL,[56] which manufactured UK blood products, ran into continual trouble from under-funding. The Archer Report said, "In July 1979, the Medicines Inspectorate visited BPL. They reported that the buildings were never designed for the scale of production envisaged. They commented: 'If this were a commercial operation we would have no hesitation in recommending that manufacture should cease until the facility was upgraded to a minimum acceptable level'.
BPL was rescued by Crown Immunity. Among their recommendations the Inspectorate advised: 'Under no circumstances should production of any product be increased under the existing manufacturing conditions'. Meanwhile, the existing plant continued production, relying on Crown Immunity to dispense with all the requirements of the Medicines Act, but was able to meet only about 40% of the national requirements."
A study published in December 1983 showed conclusively that the risk to a haemophiliac of contracting hepatitis C by using untreated clotting-factor products was 100% upon first exposure.[57]
HIV (1981-1990)
In July 1982, the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that at least 3 haemophiliacs there had developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. 2 had died, and all 3 had used untreated clotting-factor products. The CDC said that "the occurrence among the three haemophiliac cases suggests the possible transmission of an agent through blood products".[58]
In March 1983, the CDC reported that "Blood products or blood appear responsible for AIDS among haemophilia patients".[59]
In May 1983, Spence Galbraith, director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in England and Wales, sent a paper entitled "Action on AIDS", to Dr Ian Field at the Department of Health and Social Security in London, informing him of the death from AIDS of a haemophiliac who had received factor VIII concentrate imported from the United States.[60] Galbraith stated: "I have reviewed the literature and come to the conclusion that all blood products made from blood donated in the USA after 1978 should be withdrawn from use until the risk of AIDS transmission by these products has been clarified ... I am most surprised that the USA manufacturers of the implicated blood products have not informed their customers of this new hazard. I assume no critical warning has been received in the United Kingdom?"[61] Despite Galbraith's warning, the products were not withdrawn. A Department of Health letter considered that his suggestion was "premature".[62]
In September 1983, a leaflet distributed to UK blood donors answered the question as to whether AIDS could be transmitted by blood-products, to be "Almost certainly yes".[63]
In November 1983, Kenneth Clarke, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, told Parliament that "There is no conclusive evidence that AIDS is transmitted by blood products", and the importation of infected products continued. When giving evidence to the Penrose Inquiry, Dr. Mark Winter said that, at the time Ken Clarke made this statement, "all haemophilia clinicians by this stage clearly believed that commercial blood products could and were transmitting AIDS".[64]
In January 1984, Lord Glenarthur, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DHSS, said that "It remains the case that there is no conclusive evidence of the transmission of AIDS through blood products, although the circumstantial evidence is strong".[65] The use of untreated clotting-factor products and importation continued.
In April 1989, the HIV Haemophilia Litigation commenced, which culminated in December 1990 with an out-of-court settlement, following an investigation by ITV's The Cook Report in July 1990.[66][67]
Destroyed-evidence investigation (2000)
In April 2000, the Department of Health published an internal audit to examine the loss of records relating to hepatitis C litigation.[68] The report concluded that "an arbitrary and unjustified decision, most likely taken by an inexperienced member of staff, was responsible for the destruction of a series of files containing the minutes and background papers of the Advisory Committee on the Virological Safety of Blood (ACVSB)".[citation needed]
The Archer Report (2009)
In the early 2000s the former Solicitor General for England and Wales, Lord Archer, campaigned for an inquiry into the tainted blood scandal, alongside Lord Owen, who was the Health Minister from 1974 to 1976, Lord Jenkin, Health Secretary from 1979 to 1981, and others. They were unsuccessful.[citation needed]
In a 1990 episode of The Cook Report, Owen said: "I can see why some people would be unhappy with having all the facts revealed because it will show negligence".[citation needed] In September 2016 Owen gave a speech in London during which he said the scandal had been covered up.[citation needed]
The late Lord Archer of Sandwell chaired a privately funded independent investigation set up in 2007. The Archer Report was published in 2009 and aimed to uncover the causes of the events that led to the thousands of infections and deaths.[69] The report held no legal or official status and was unable to subpoena witnesses or demand the disclosure of documents.[52]
It sought to address the issue of missing evidence and documents relating to the scandal. For example, the ministerial papers of Lord Owen had been destroyed. "We have been unable to ascertain who carried out the destruction of the papers, and who gave the instructions. But the conclusion appears inescapable that some official made a decision which he or she had no authority to make, or that someone was guilty of a serious error of judgement. The consequence is that Lord Owen has done his best to recollect details of events a quarter of a century ago, but both he, and we, have been deprived of the primary sources", Lord Archer reported.[70]
Lord Jenkin voiced his difficulties obtaining documents for the inquiry. The report stated: "He subsequently received from the Department two bundles of documents. One of these was to be treated as confidential". Lord Jenkin felt that the destruction of records was deliberate, and done "in order to draw a line under the disaster".[70]
Another handling error is described in the inquiry: "mishandling of documents arose in connection with a number of files relating to the Advisory Committee on the Virological Safety of Blood between May 1989 and February 1992 which were found to be missing". The report stated: "They were in fact destroyed over a period from July 1994 to March 1998". When summarising these events it is stated "some of those who gave evidence to us suspected that there was an exercise in suppressing evidence of negligence or misconduct."
In 2008, the Scottish government announced a public inquiry into the scandal covering Scotland only, to be chaired by Lord Penrose.[71] The inquiry's terms of reference outlined five deaths that were to be examined.[72] Only one of those victims was a haemophiliac[73][74] and that person had been infected with hepatitis C in the 1960s as part of their treatment for haemophilia.[75]
Published in 2015, the inquiry was described as a whitewash[76][77] and waste of public money (over £12 million)[78] by critics after it found that very little could have been done differently,[79] and failed to apportion any blame in the scandal, while making just one recommendation.[80] Its recommendation was to offer blood tests to anyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before 1991 and who had not already been tested for hepatitis C.[81]
Legal action and UK public inquiry (2017)
Inquiry logo
In July 2017, a group legal action Jason Evans & Ors was brought against the government on behalf of more than 500 people.[82] After years of increasing pressure from campaigners and MPs, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a full UK-wide public inquiry into the scandal.[83][84] In September 2017, a court ruling found in favour of the victims, allowing them to launch a High Court action to seek damages.[85][86][87]
False ministerial statements withdrawn (2018)
In June 2018, the Department of Health issued an apology,[citation needed] because for two years Ministers had told Parliament that in relation to Contaminated Blood Scandal evidence: "All documents up to 1995 are available through the National Archives".[88]
Files still missing (2019)
In February 2019, it emerged that around 450 files had been taken from the archives by staff from the Department of Health and Social Care, and not returned, sparking concerns among campaigners that the department was attempting a cover-up.[89]
Infected Blood Inquiry statistics report, 2022
The Infected Blood Inquiry statistics report, published in September 2022, set out to establish the true numbers of those infected and includes David Spiegelhalter among its authors. The report found that around 1,250 people with bleeding disorders were infected with HIV in the UK and that at least a further 2,400 people were infected with Hepatitis C.[90]
The report concluded that around three-quarters of those infected with HIV had died and that at least 700 people infected with Hepatitis C had died. The report found that 8,120 people were chronically infected with Hepatitis C, ten years or more after contaminated blood transfusions. Circumstances under which people were infected via transfusions are different to factor products. For example, blood for blood transfusion was not imported from the US.
Government support
Successive governments, led by Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats, have been criticised for their handling of the case, limited support schemes and refusal to conduct a public inquiry, until 2017. Some limited support has been provided to selected individuals through charitable trusts[91] which is often subject to means testing, though no damages or compensation have ever been paid to UK victims or their families.[92]
In 1991, the Conservative government made £42 million available to those affected by HIV.[93] This equates to around £29,000 on average, given to the 1,437 people who received a payment.
In 2017, the Conservatives announced more funds for those with first-stage chronic hepatitis C. This additional money was reportedly to be sourced from funds for other tainted blood victims. The Department of Health was accused of robbing one set of victims to pay another. Officials stated that it had made available an extra £125 million, more than any previous government, but critics said this money was simply accounted for as a cost to the NHS, of extending treatments to those with hepatitis C sooner.[94]
In December 2023, an amendment was added to the Victims and Prisoners Bill that would establish a compensation scheme for victims. The Conservative government failed to prevent the amendment in a vote in the House of Commons, despite a three-line whip, in what was seen as a significant blow to the Sunak administration's authority.[95]
In May 2024, Cabinet Office Minister John Glen MP told the House of Commons that the victims of the scandal (or their estates) would receive an interim compensation payment of up to £210,000 within 90 days.[96]
Compensation scheme
On 22 August 2024, regulations for the compensation scheme were laid before the UK Parliament.[97] On 23 August, the government published a policy paper explaining the functioning of the compensation scheme.[98]
Haemophilia, or hemophilia, is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, and an increased risk of bleeding inside joints or the brain. Those with a mild case of the disease may have symptoms only after an accident or during surgery. Bleeding into a joint can result in permanent damage while bleeding in the brain can result in long term headaches, seizures, or an altered level of consciousness.
Haemophilia A is a blood clotting disorder caused by a genetic deficiency in clotting factor VIII, thereby resulting in significant susceptibility to bleeding, both internally and externally. This condition occurs almost exclusively in males born to carrier mothers due to X-linked recessive inheritance. Nevertheless, rare isolated cases do emerge from de novo (spontaneous) mutations.
Haemophilia B, also spelled hemophilia B, is a blood clotting disorder causing easy bruising and bleeding due to an inherited mutation of the gene for factor IX, and resulting in a deficiency of factor IX. It is less common than factor VIII deficiency.
In the 1980s, between one and two thousand haemophilia patients in Japan contracted HIV via contaminated blood products. Controversy centered on the continued use of non-heat-treated blood products after the development of heat treatments that prevented the spread of infection. Some high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Health and Welfare, executives of the manufacturing company and a leading doctor in the field of haemophilia study were charged for involuntary manslaughter.
The tainted blood disaster, or the tainted blood scandal, was a Canadian public health crisis in the 1980s in which thousands of people were exposed to HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products. It became apparent that inadequately-screened blood, often coming from high-risk populations, was entering the system through blood transfusions. It is now considered to be the largest single (preventable) public health disaster in the history of Canada.
Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal is a feature-length documentary by Arkansas filmmaker and investigative journalist, Kelly Duda, released in 2005. Through interviews and the presentation of documents and footage, Duda alleged that in the 1970s and 1980s, the Arkansas prison system profited from selling blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and HIV. The documentary contends that thousands of victims who received transfusions of blood products derived from these plasma products, Factor VIII, died as a result.
Kelly Duda is an American filmmaker and activist from Arkansas best known for the 2005 documentary, Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal.
Contaminated hemophilia blood products were a serious public health problem in the late 1970s up to 1985.
The Lindsay Tribunal was set up in Ireland in 1999 to investigate the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV and Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products supplied by the Blood Transfusion Service Board.
In April 1991, the doctor and journalist Anne-Marie Casteret published an article in the French weekly magazine the L'Événement du jeudi showing that the Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine knowingly distributed blood products contaminated with HIV to haemophiliacs in 1984 and 1985, leading to an outbreak of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C in numerous countries. It is estimated that 6,000 to 10,000 haemophiliacs were infected in the United States alone. In France, 4,700 people were infected, and over 300 died. Other impacted countries include Canada, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
Patrick McGuire is a Scottish solicitor and solicitor advocate. He is a partner with personal injury law firm Thompsons Solicitors Scotland.
The Penrose Inquiry was the public inquiry into hepatitis C and HIV infections from NHS Scotland treatment with blood and blood products such as factor VIII, often used by people with haemophilia. The event is often called the Tainted Blood Scandal or Contaminated Blood Scandal.
Arthur Leslie Bloom FRCP, FRCPath (1930–1992) was a Welsh physician focused on the field of Haemophilia.
Charles Rocco Carmine Rizza FRCPEd was a British consultant physician who specialised in haematology.
R (March) v Secretary of State for Health was a 2010 judicial review which challenged the UK Department of Health's decision not to implement Recommendation 6(h) of the Archer Independent Inquiry. The case was important in developing the doctrine of error of fact in public law which previously had not readily been the subject of judicial intervention.
M.C. and Others v Italy is a case decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on 3 September 2013 in which Article 1 of Protocol 1 (A1P1) was engaged due to the applicants not being afforded annual uprating which the court deemed damage to their property of a disproportionate character in the form of an exorbitant charge. The Strasbourg ruling sets an important precedent for higher monthly compensation payments to be paid to the 60,000 or so victims of contaminated blood transfusions in Italy. The effect of this ruling increased payments to the applicants by 40%.
A and Others v National Blood Authority and Another, also known as the Hepatitis C Litigation, was a landmark product liability case of 2001 primarily concerning blood transfusions but also blood products or transplanted organs, all of which were infected with hepatitis C, where liability was established under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and the Product Liability Directive (85/374/EEC) even in the absence of the ability to test to ascertain which blood transfusions were defective. The claimants were 114 individuals, six of whom were considered lead plaintiffs and given close consideration by the judge, Mr Justice Burton. Several of the claimants were minors who had become infected with Hepatitis C in the course of their treatment for leukaemia. The defendants were the National Blood Authority (NBA) and in respect of Wales, the Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff. The court found that the UK government should have implemented measures to screen donated blood for HCV by March 1990, rather than September 1991, and that surrogate testing should have been introduced within the United Kingdom no later than 1 March 1988.
The Advisory Committee on the Virological Safety of Blood, often abbreviated to ACVSB, was a committee formed in March 1989 in the United Kingdom to devise policy and advise ministers and the Department of Health on the safety of blood with respect to viral infections. The scope of the ACVSB concerned areas of significant policy for the whole of the United Kingdom and operated under the terms of reference: "To advise the Health Departments of the UK on measures to ensure the virological safety of blood, whilst maintaining adequate supplies of appropriate quality for both immediate use and for plasma processing." Of particular emphasis to the remit was the testing of blood donors using surrogate markers for Non-A Non-B hepatitis (NANBH) and later on, HCV-screening of blood donors.
The HIV Haemophilia Litigation [1990] 41 BMLR 171, [1990] 140 NLJR 1349 (CA), [1989] E N. 2111, also known as AMcG002, and HHL, was a legal claim by 962 plaintiffs, mainly haemophiliacs, who were infected with HIV as a result of having been treated with blood products in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first central defendants were the then Department of Health, with other defendants being the Licensing Authority of the time, (MCA), the CSM, the CBLA, and the regional health authorities of England and Wales. In total, there were 220 defendants in the action.
The Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) is an organization that represents the interests of people with haemophilia, von Willebrand disease and other inherited bleeding disorders.
↑ Srivastava A (April 2024). "Defining success in haemophilia care – Are we doing it right?". Haemophilia. 30 (Suppl 3): 52–59. doi:10.1111/hae.14958. PMID38498584.
↑ "Part IV: International Responses to the Risk of HIV in the Blood Supply"(PDF). Krever Report. p.941. in April 1989 a number of hemophiliacs brought a civil action against the Department of Health, the Medicines Licensing Authority, the Committee on Safety of Medicines, the Blood Products Laboratory, and the regional health authorities.
1 2 The Archer Inquiry. 2009. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2018. On 13 April 2005 Lord Jenkin met Sir Nigel, who apologised for the original reply. Lord Jenkin was left with the clear impression from their subsequent conversation that all the files bearing upon the issue of contaminated blood products had been destroyed, and that this had been done 'with intent, in order to draw a line under the disaster'.
↑ Dinwoodie, Robbie (9 May 2009). "Blood inquiry cost has reached £9m". The Herald Scotland. Retrieved 29 January 2022. The inquiry into blood contamination affecting hundreds of patients in the 1970s and 1980s was called by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon in April 2008... ...It was chaired by senior judge Lord Penrose...
↑ "Terms of Reference". penroseinquiry.org.uk. Penrose Inquiry. Retrieved 29 January 2022. To investigate the deaths of Reverend David Black, Mrs Eileen O'Hara, Alexander Black Laing and Victor Tamburrini, with particular reference to the circumstances in which they became infected with the Hepatitis C virus, HIV or both.
↑ "Final Report". penroseinquiry.org.uk. Retrieved 29 January 2022. 7.12 Mr Black was born on 1 May 1937. He died on 31 October 2003 at Strathcarron Hospice, Stirlingshire. The cause of death was registered as hepatocellular cancer in a transplanted liver, Hepatitis C, transfusion of blood products and haemophilia...
↑ "Penrose Report". penroseinquiry.org.uk. Penrose Inquiry. Retrieved 29 January 2022. On the balance of probabilities Mr Black acquired Hepatitis C infection before the end of the 1960s in the course of haemophilia therapy in Scotland.
↑ "Victims cry 'whitewash' over Penrose blood infection inquiry". bbc.co.uk. BBC News Scotland. Retrieved 29 January 2022. Victims and relatives of the contaminated blood scandal cry out "whitewash" at the end of the news conference publicising the findings of a judge-led inquiry.
↑ Peterki, Tom (25 March 2015). "Blood scandal victims condemn Penrose inquiry". The Scotsman. Retrieved 29 January 2022. The Scottish Government accepted Lord Penrose's solitary recommendation to test patients who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 for hepatitis C if they have not already been examined.
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