Blood service collected donations from UK prisons despite infection risk warnings, documents to inquiry show
Documents submitted to the Infected Blood Inquiry reveal the blood service in the UK was taking donations from British prisons up until the late 1980s, despite warnings to end the practice.
It is evidence of how unsafe, by today’s standards, the UK blood supply was until the early 1990s when testing for life-threatening viruses like hepatitis C and HIV became available.
Much of the inquiry has focused on haemophiliacs, the group harmed most in the infection scandal due to blood products imported from the US made from contaminated blood from paying donors including those in jail.
But the vast majority of people infected with hepatitis C in the UK acquired their infection via blood transfusions in the NHS for things like routine surgery, cancer treatment or following childbirth.
Blood given to this silent majority in the infected blood scandal was sourced almost exclusively from donors in Britain.
“I felt so guilty I passed it on,” says Daphne Whitehorn.
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She contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion she received during a kidney transplant in 1971.
“But I didn’t know I could pass it on because I was never told anything about it,” she says.
Daphne Whitehorn
Her daughter Janice tested positive for the virus in 2019, probably infected when she was born. Neither knew they had the infection for decades.
Symptoms can be mild at first, many people naturally clear the virus and treatments introduced in the last decade can cure most people of their infection without serious side-effects.
But chronic infection can cause severe liver damage, liver failure and liver cancer.
The Whitehorns and thousands of other victims of the scandal are looking to the Infected Blood Inquiry for answers.
Key among them, why so many people were infected with hepatitis C.
There are no precise numbers, many of the records of donors, recipients and procedures have been lost or destroyed.
But statistical experts for the inquiry estimate around 27,000 people may have been infected with hepatitis C via transfusions. Most have subsequently died of other causes but they calculate around 1,600 have died so far from causes related directly to their hepatitis C infection.
The inquiry has heard how more could have been done to keep viruses like hepatitis out of the blood supply.
Janice Whitehorn tested positive for the virus in 2019
Documents show how calls to end the practice of taking donations from the prison population were slow to be heeded.
The inquiry was shown evidence that in 1973 rates of hepatitis viruses were found to be fives times higher in prisoners than the general population.
While this led to many regional blood services to stop taking donations from prisons, others continued. The last prison donation took place in 1987.
But the inquiry is expected to consider far wider failings too.
Like why, when testing for HIV for and then Hepatitis C became available, was the blood service slow to adopt using them. Also why infected frozen stocks of blood taken before Hepatitis C testing was introduced were not retrospectively tested before being given to patients in the early 1990s.
In addition, victims of the scandal want to know why it took four years for the Department of Health to approve a “look-back” exercise to identify those who may have been infected due to a blood transfusion. Also why that exercise left so many still unaware they had been infected.
A photo wall of victims of the scandal
“We’re very sorry for the parts that we played in the past,” says Dr Gail Miflin, chief medical officer of the NHS Blood and Transplant Service.
“Listening to the stories of those infected and affected, they are dreadful stories.
“My job as chief medical officer is to ensure that the blood supply today is safe and that people who need a transfusion today, get blood that comes from one of the safest blood services in the world.”
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And much has changed.
Donors today are screened for lifestyle factors and travel history that might have put them at risk of blood-borne infections.
Each donation is also tested for a number of infections including HIV and hepatitis C, and a sample of each donation is archived for three years in case re-testing is required.
The Infected Blood Inquiry is due to publish its final report on 20 May.
If you think you may have been at risk of hepatitis C infection, free testing is available in England: https://hepctest.nhs.uk/ in Wales: https://www.shwales.online/wales-sti-testing-kit-test-and-post.html In Scotland you will need to speak to your GP.
UK
‘I was told this was a wonder drug but not warned about the deathly consequences’: 100 faces of infected blood scandal
“Losing Gary, my soul mate, was beyond painful,” says Kathryn Croucher, whose husband died aged 42 in 2010.
“Every day was a struggle dealing with the knowledge he was HIV and Hepatitis C positive.”
“Mum always said she was given a death sentence,” recalls Ronan Fitzgerald. His mother, Jane, died aged 54 after being infected with Hepatitis C when she was 16. “It was a ticking time bomb.”
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The faces of the infected blood scandal.
More than 30,000 Britons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Around 3,000 people have died as a result of the scandal, while many more still live under the shadow of health problems, debilitating treatments and stigma. Now, the findings of a public inquiry, first announced in 2017, will finally be published.
These are 100 faces of infected blood victims that either they, or their families, have shared with Sky News.
Click the images to read their stories.
Sky News will have full coverage of the infected blood report on TV, online and on the Sky News app today.
Sky News would like to thank everyone who contributed to this project.
Julian Assange will be allowed to appeal against his extradition to the United States.
Two judges responded today to US assurances that Mr Assange will not face the death penalty – and can rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a trial for spying.
The WikiLeaks founder faces prosecution in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2017. Pic: Reuters
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a police van after being arrested in London in 2019. Pic: Reuters
Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange, criticised the assurances of Joe Biden’s US administration at the hearing. He said: “Based on the principle of the separation of powers, the US court can and will apply US law, whatever the executive may say or do.”
He added most of the promises were “blatantly inadequate” – but they had accepted the promise about the death penalty.
In written submissions, the barrister said while the assurance over the death penalty was “an unambiguous executive promise”, the other assurance does not give “any reliable promise as to future action”.
The barrister added: “What needs to be conclusively removed is the risk that he will be prevented from relying on the first amendment on grounds of nationality.”
But James Lewis KC, representing the US government, insisted the “judicial branch of the United States will take due notice of this solemn assurance given by its government in the course of international relations”.
In written submissions, he said there is “no question” that Assange, if extradited, “will be entitled to the full panoply of due process trial rights, including the right to raise, and seek to rely upon, the first amendment as a defence”.
He later told the court: “The assurance does make it clear that he will not be discriminated against because of his nationality.
“He can and will be able to raise all those arguments and his nationality will not prejudice a fair trial.”
Today’s decision is the latest chapter in 13 years of legal battles and detentions for Australian-born Mr Assange.
Supporters of Mr Assange have been gathering outside the High Court. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
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The US authorities want to put Mr Assange on trial over 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act.
They claim his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.
During a two-day hearing in February, lawyers for Mr Assange asked for permission to challenge a judge’s dismissal of the majority of his case to prevent his extradition.
In March, Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Johnson dismissed most of Mr Assange’s legal arguments – but said unless assurances were given by the US, he would be able to bring an appeal on three grounds.
These assurances are that Assange would be protected by and allowed to rely on the First Amendment – which protects freedom of speech in the US – that he is not “prejudiced at trial” due to his nationality, and that the death penalty is not imposed.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Supporters of Mr Assange have already been gathering outside the High Court to continue their calls for his release.
Mr Assange is currently being held in London’s high security Belmarsh prison.
Detectives are on the hunt for two men following a fatal stabbing in Glasgow at the weekend.
Police Scotland said the force received a report of a man being attacked and stabbed in Saracen Street, Possil, at around 5pm on Saturday.
Emergency services attended and took the 27-year-old victim to the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he later died.
The death is being treated as “suspicious” ahead of the completion of a post-mortem examination.
Investigating officers have since established that two men were involved in the attack.
The suspects have been described as white and in their 30s.
One was wearing a light-blue top and black shorts, while the other was dressed in a white top, black shorts and black trainers.
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Officers have been gathering and reviewing CCTV footage from in and around the neighbourhood as the probe continues.
Additional patrols have also been mobilised to the area, and anyone with information or concerns can approach these officers.
Read more from Sky News:
The stories behind 100 victims of infected blood scandal
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Detective Inspector Lesley-Ann McGee said: “It was a warm, sunny day and there were lots of people out enjoying the weather in Saracen.
“I am asking them to get in touch with us with any information that could assist us in establishing the motive for this attack. If you saw, heard or know anything please contact us.
“I’m also asking people with dashcam or doorbell recording equipment to check for any footage that could assist our investigation.
“A family is mourning the loss of a loved one and it’s imperative we are able to answer how their loved one died.”
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