On Monday, I learned that 33 years after I was given a contaminated blood transfusion, the government has admitted that I and thousands of others were victims of a corrupt, careless system, and that we should receive compensation (UK infected blood scandal made worse by ‘chilling’ cover-up, inquiry finds, 20 May). It is a hollow victory.
I received a transfusion that contained hepatitis C after a stomach operation. I was fortunate to survive, unlike many others. My thoughts go out to their families. Although I have survived so far, hepatitis C can lead to liver cancer at any time. It’s a time bomb and is so frightening.
Unlike others, I did get an apology back in 1991 from a senior figure at the Southampton blood transfusion service. We met after I gave blood (as I always did), and he said the blood they took was contaminated. He explained that although the hospital had had the ability to test in March 1991, when I had a transfusion in September, the hospital hadn’t introduced the test, as it couldn’t afford it.
The sad situation was made worse by years of politicians kicking the can down the road. Let’s hope the government has plans in place to stop this awful situation happening again.
Stuart Bolitho
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
• Nobody can ever know how many people died of infected blood. My father died in 1981, four months before his 65th birthday. Having been a manual labourer all his life, he was a very fit, active man though he had operations on his knees.
Over the last 18 months of his life, he developed poor health, which started as extreme tiredness, becoming more severe until he was extremely ill. He developed what looked like cold sores all over his face, lost vast amounts of weight and was hospitalised several times. In spite of extensive tests, no explanation was found for his illness.
Soon after he died, the Aids awareness campaign started – and seeing victims of Aids, I felt as though I was looking at my father in that last year of his life. I have no doubt that he died of Aids in the early days before blood was tested.
There must have been many people who died of infected blood in the early 1980s. Let’s not forget these unknown victims of this terrible scandal.
Marjorie Haynes
Frome, Somerset
• In the 1970s, I was a student of Prof Richard Titmuss at the London School of Economics. I also read his book, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy, considered by the New York Times to be one of the 10 most important books of the year when it was first published in 1970. It should have influenced health policy in the subsequent 50 years; if nothing else, alarm bells should have rung loudly 10 years later when there was such concern about Aids.
Titmuss wrote a comparative study of blood donating in the US and Britain, and raised profound economic, political and moral questions. He contrasted the British system, which relied on voluntary donors, with the American one, where blood donors were paid and not adequately screened, so among the donors were people with hepatitis and HIV. He showed how a system based on altruism is more effective than one that treats human blood as a commodity. He could not have been more right.
Christine Hancock
General secretary, Royal College of Nursing, 1989-2001
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