Posted: 18-Apr-2007 << BACK
Norwich Evening News 18 April 2007 09:06 Reporter Sarah Hall
A long-awaited independent public inquiry into the supply of contaminated NHS blood to haemophilia patients has begun and was today set to hear evidence from those affected.
Hundreds of campaigners from Norfolk had called for an inquiry after nearly 5,000 people were exposed to hepatitis C and more than 1,200 people infected with HIV during the 1970's and early 1980's. Nationally, more than 1,700 patients have since died, and many more are terminally ill.
The inquiry, which is being funded privately and not paid for by the government who said treatments were given in "good faith", will be led by Labour peer Lord Archer of Sandwell, a former solicitor general.
In his opening statement, Lord Archer said the inquiry would investigate the circumstances surrounding the supply of contaminated NHS blood and blood products and make recommendations to assess the needs of patients and bereaved families.
Haemophilia is a rare inherited bleeding disorder in which blood does not clot normally. The main problem is internal bleeding into joints, muscles and soft tissues. Michael Collyer is a haemophiliac who was infected with Hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood products during the NHS blunder.
The 53-year-old from Colman Road, Norwich said: It is great news that the inquiry has finally gone ahead. It is the people who were infected who know about this illness and they are the ones who need to give evidence. I hope we get the answers we are looking for.
Hepatitis C is severe inflammation of the liver Infection can be caused through contact with an infected person's blood, through sexual contact or by accidental pricking with a contaminated needle.
In the early 1970s, patients were treated with blood proteins that came in dry powder form and could then be reconstituted with water - plasma from 10,000 donors went into the product.
The treatment, which often came from patients in the United States who were paid for giving blood, exposed 4,670 patients to hepatitis C infection.
Successive governments have refused to admit any fault but payments of varying amounts have been made to people who caught HIV.
