Sunday 27 November 2022 12:50 AM How the MOS - pilloried as 'alarmist' for exposing blood scandal - are set to ... trends now
The full story behind The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to expose a scandal involving vulnerable patients given infected blood can be revealed today.
As many as 2,400 people are thought to have died in the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. On average, one person affected is dying every four days. An estimated 1,350 people were infected with HIV from contaminated blood products between 1970 and 1991. Around 26,800 were infected with hepatitis C.
Now, finally, a public inquiry has unearthed extraordinary evidence about how the MoS’s investigation uncovered the medical catastrophe in May 1983 – but also shows how our revelations were ignored and a campaign was launched to discredit the story.
In a meticulously researched article, the newspaper’s then medical correspondent Susan Douglas revealed how blood imported from America could be contaminated with HIV and that two haemophilia sufferers in Britain were suspected of having AIDS after being given tainted blood.
In a meticulously researched article, the newspaper’s then medical correspondent Susan Douglas revealed how blood imported from America could be contaminated with HIV and that two haemophilia sufferers in Britain were suspected of having AIDS after being given tainted blood. Pictured: Jon and Edward Buggins were infected by contaminated blood after being diagnosed with haemophilia
Now, finally, a public inquiry has unearthed extraordinary evidence about how the MoS’s investigation uncovered the medical catastrophe in May 1983 – but also shows how our revelations were ignored and a campaign was launched to discredit the story
Under the powerful headline ‘Hospitals using killer blood’, the story warned that screening of blood was less stringent in America and that anyone could donate blood for the equivalent of £5 to £7 a pint. The blood was sourced from high-risk donors, including prostitutes, drug addicts and prisoners.
The story sent shockwaves through the medical community. Anxious haemophilia patients quizzed their doctors, only to be told the risk was low.
Now, after a 40-year campaign, victims and their families are finally set to get justice – as they praised the MoS for first exposing the disaster. The public inquiry is expected to lambast top civil servants and health chiefs in the 1980s for ignoring a series of warnings about using the blood products.
Ministers in successive governments are also set to be condemned for failing to take responsibility and for refusing to compensate survivors and their families.
Whitehall officials are now drawing up plans for a huge compensation scheme ahead of the publication of the inquiry’s damning report next
