Inquiry released in British blood scandal

[SteveWhite]

https://apnews.com/article/uk-infected-blood-inquiry-report-cc37acdc60798c7af82131efce63b6f1

LONDON (AP) — British authorities and the country’s public health service knowingly exposed tens of thousands of patients to deadly infections through contaminated blood and blood products, and hid the truth about the disaster for decades, an inquiry into the U.K.’s infected blood scandal found Monday.

An estimated 3,000 people in the United Kingdom are believed to have died and many others were left with lifelong illnesses after receiving blood or blood products tainted with HIV or hepatitis in the 1970s to the early 1990s.

The scandal is widely seen as the deadliest disaster in the history of Britain’s state-run National Health Service since its inception in 1948.

Former judge Brian Langstaff, who chaired the inquiry, slammed successive governments and medical professionals for “a catalogue of failures” and refusal to admit responsibility to save face and expense. He found that deliberate attempts were made to conceal the scandal, and there was evidence of government officials destroying documents.

Article explains that National Health Service used many high-risk, often paid, donors. But problem became much worse because it wasn’t one transfusion per donor, but that the collected blood was mixed, so that one infected donor would contaminate blood going to numerous recipients.

Then much lying and covering up.

[CuriousGeorge]

Why would they mix blood? Is it to get a full unit from all the leftover partials?

[SteveWhite]

Link explains, but only partially. No, the blood wasn’t used in traditional transfusions at all. It was used to make some product they hoped would improve clotting. (A consequence: many of the victims were hemophiliacs.) To manufacture the product they mixed blood from multiple donors.