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Health & Medicine, World Affairs
Mahesh

21/05/24 06:05 AM IST

UK’s contaminated blood scandal

In News
  • The report of an independent inquiry into the United Kingdom’s contaminated blood scandal will be published, and Britain is expected to shell out more than 10 billion pounds ($12.70 billion.
About NHS
  • The NHS is an inclusive public health service under government administration, which was established by the National Health Service Act of 1946 and subsequent legislation in 1948.
  • The entire population of the UK is covered, and health services are provided free of cost to the public, except for certain minimum charges.
  • The NHS constitutes four services — NHS in England, NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.
  • It is the world’s fifth largest employer and the largest non-military public organisation, and wields significant market power.
  • By and large, the NHS is considered to have been an effective and efficient health service, some of its recent post-Brexit problems notwithstanding.
  • Medical services under the NHS are administered in three separate groups: general practitioner and dental services, hospital and specialist services, and local health authority services.
Contaminated Blood Scandal
  • During the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of people who had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia, were given blood donated or sold by people who were infected with the HIV virus and hepatitis.
  • Tainted blood was also given to people who needed blood transfusions after childbirth or surgery.
  • In the early 1970s, the NHS started using a new treatment for haemophilia called Factor VIII.
  • This was a processed pharmaceutical product that was created by pooling plasma from many donors.
  • Factor VIII was considered to be a “wonder drug” for patients with classical haemophilia and Von Willebrand Syndrome (which is a bleeding disorder in which the patient’s blood cannot clot fully), more efficient and convenient than earlier treatments.
  • The nature of Factor VIII was such that even one infected donor could compromise the entire batch of the protein.
  • The product used by the NHS was imported from the United States, where a large volume of donated plasma at the time came from prisoners and users of intravenous drugs who were paid for their blood.
  • The inquiry report has estimated that more than 30,000 people were infected with HIV, hepatitis C or, as in the case of 1,250 haemophiliacs, both.
  • Nearly two-thirds of those who were infected with HIV later died of AIDS-related illnesses, and an unknown number transferred HIV to their partners.
  • The report said that 2,400-5,000 recipients of blood developed hepatitis C, with the exact figure not known yet, as symptoms can show up years later.
Major Findings
  • Several reports have stated that school children, some as young as 2 years old, were subjected to medical trials using infected blood products.
  • The majority of the children who enrolled are now dead. 
  • The documents also showed that doctors in haemophilia centres used blood products, even though they were widely known as likely to be contaminated.
  • As per the report, patients were “deliberately given Factor VIII, so they could be enrolled in clinical trials”.
  • Of the 122 pupils who attended Treloar’s College between 1974 and 1987, 75 have so far died of HIV and hepatitis C infections.
Govt. Response
  • It was only after 1985 that all Factor VIII products were heat-treated to kill the HIV virus. However, UK blood donations were not routinely screened for hep C until 1991.
  • Evidence provided to the inquiry suggests that the British government chose to turn a blind eye to the situation, mainly due to financial considerations.
  • According to a BBC report, official documents from the 1990s showed that cost concerns prevented the NHS from pursuing adequate testing or campaigns to raise awareness, despite many warnings in the mid-1970s that blood donations from the US carried risk of viral infection.
  • As early as 1953, the World Health Organisation (WHO), had warned of the hepatitis risks associated with the mass pooling of plasma products.
  • It urged that dried plasma should be prepared from pools of between 10 to 20 donors to reduce the risk of contamination.
Source- Indian Express

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