Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth Panorama


Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth

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It is the worst disaster in the history of the NHS.

3:14:493:14:53

Who's to blame? Are they stupid or just incompetent?

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It's one or the other, isn't it? It's somebody's fault.

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Over 2,000 have died,

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thousands more are still suffering.

3:15:033:15:06

I was someone who looked like that classical AIDS case.

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I looked like I really hadn't got long for this world at all.

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The victims were all given contaminated blood products

3:15:143:15:19

more than 25 years ago.

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We understood that there were risks.

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What we didn't understand was the magnitude of what was about to happen.

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At just one school for disabled children,

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dozens were infected with lethal viruses.

3:15:313:15:34

72 people went to school,

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left school, and died.

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How did that happen to children?

3:15:413:15:46

Even now, new cases are still being diagnosed.

3:15:473:15:52

I get angry days and I'm frightened I'm going to die.

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This is one of the greatest injustices our country has ever seen.

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Thousands of lives lost, and yet,

3:16:013:16:04

the truth about it has never been told.

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This is the story of Britain's contaminated blood disaster

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and the search for the truth.

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This is... This is a death sentence.

3:16:143:16:17

BIRDS CRY

3:16:283:16:30

Twice a week, Janet and Colin Smith visit their son's grave.

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Hello, my little boy.

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God bless.

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Colin died in 1990,

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he was just seven years old.

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God, I miss him so much sometimes.

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Some days it's really hard.

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He could have lived a normal life, you know.

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He was such a lovely little boy.

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Just so unnecessary.

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Colin was born with a bleeding disorder, haemophilia.

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But it was the treatment he was given that ultimately killed him.

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I didn't know that any blood products or anything like that,

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you could just get HIV.

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We didn't have a clue.

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Three decades on,

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the Smiths still want the NHS and the government held to account.

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Just recognise it, just, you know, you murdered him.

3:17:423:17:46

I... I know that's a strong word, but that's how

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me and all the other people with tainted blood look at it.

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Because it's murder. It's just bloody murder.

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-You shouldn't swear.

-I know I shouldn't swear,

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but I get angry about it because they don't take any notice.

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But the tragedy didn't end with the deaths of patients like Colin.

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Michelle Tolley is one of the latest victims.

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In 2015, Michelle was working for Tesco.

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And she'd been chosen to appear in one of the company's staff videos.

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-Hi, I'm Ciaran.

-Hi, I'm Michelle.

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I was doing the Christmas Tesco adverts for the television.

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Come on, let's go.

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'And we had our own little film crew.

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'It was after then,'

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about a week or two,

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that my health suddenly took a turn for the worse.

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Michelle went to her GP and had a blood test.

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The test was done there and then.

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And he actually phoned me at home the next afternoon...

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and told me...

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..that it had come back positive.

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And I was like,

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"No, no, no, you're telling me I've had hepatitis C for 28 years?"

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Growing silently, because they call it the silent killer.

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Hepatitis C has given Michelle sclerosis of the liver,

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which can cause cancer.

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She is now being treated,

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but the damage that's already been done could prove fatal.

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You know, there's people out there that have already lost lives,

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lost loved ones, etc, through it.

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I can't understand why the government won't accept the responsibility.

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And it's been allowed to go on for 40 years.

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This is the fourth decade.

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And I'm frightened I'm going to die.

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Michelle and Colin are just two of many thousands infected over

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more than a decade by NHS treatments that were supposed to help them.

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The victims and their families are still trying to understand

3:20:023:20:05

how things could have gone so disastrously wrong.

3:20:053:20:09

Hello.

3:20:113:20:13

Adrian Goodyear, like Colin, suffers from haemophilia.

3:20:133:20:17

Talk to me? No? No.

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It means his blood can't clot properly.

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And without treatment, he could bleed uncontrollably.

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I have a weekly injection to help my blood to clot, basically.

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If not, I get internal bleeding,

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you get something called a rush bleed when you're really only have

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about 20 minutes before the joint or muscle is completely solid

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and filled with blood inside.

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If you've ever broken a bone, it's the same. It's the same pain.

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About one in 10,000 children are born with haemophilia.

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Most of them boys.

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Their internal bleeds can be life-threatening.

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And before modern treatments,

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modern haemophiliacs didn't survive beyond their teenage years.

3:20:573:21:02

Growing up in the '70s, Adrian had a hard time at his local school.

3:21:043:21:09

The first day when I arrived in my middle school,

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the headmaster made the mistake of holding me up in front of

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the whole school saying, "Do not hit this young boy

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"cos he has haemophilia and he will bleed."

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Now, could you imagine how that played out the next four years?

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At school. "What happens if I hit you?"

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Dot, dot, dot.

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They couldn't cope with my condition.

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It would take four days to get over one bleed.

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So you'd be in hospital for a week and you'd miss so much school.

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Much school was missed.

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But in 1980, Adrian was given the chance

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to go to Treloar's, a specialist school for disabled children.

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'280 boys and girls, aged eight to 19, attend this remarkable school.'

3:21:553:22:00

I ended up at the age of ten going to Treloar's.

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But it was a boarding school and it was completely unique.

3:22:033:22:07

It was an old Elizabethan mansion, it was like Harry Potter's.

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It was incredible.

3:22:133:22:14

And Treloar's had an NHS haemophilia centre on site.

3:22:153:22:19

'The college has many years' experience in managing haemophilia.'

3:22:203:22:24

It was the only school in the world like it.

3:22:253:22:28

When I went there, there were about 35 haemophilia boys.

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There was a medical centre, nurses, physiotherapists.

3:22:323:22:36

You would never have to miss a class ever again.

3:22:373:22:40

A few years above was Joseph Petie.

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I was 13 when I went to Treloar's.

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And, yeah, it was a very different experience

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to anything I'd ever had before.

3:22:523:22:55

There was a lot more freedom, it was almost like a seamless existence.

3:22:563:23:01

You were at the college, but the haemophilia centre was there day or night,

3:23:013:23:04

you'd come out of your dorm, down the corridor

3:23:043:23:06

and you were in there and seeing a doctor.

3:23:063:23:08

Being at Treloar's gave me an ability to become

3:23:083:23:11

more independent and to kind of gain your own perspective on life,

3:23:113:23:16

your own personality, your own character.

3:23:163:23:18

Children at Treloar's were given blood clotting treatments

3:23:203:23:23

that had revolutionised the care of haemophilia -

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factor concentrates.

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The most common was called Factor VIII.

3:23:283:23:32

Factor VIII made the most unimaginable difference.

3:23:343:23:37

Because you could have your jab,

3:23:373:23:39

you'd probably be off your feet only for a day,

3:23:393:23:41

you weren't worried about getting on your bike or your skateboard or,

3:23:413:23:44

you know, going out with your friends up the park.

3:23:443:23:47

Factor VIII stopped bleeds quickly and could even prevent them.

3:23:483:23:52

And patients could treat themselves.

3:23:523:23:55

'At Treloar's all haemophilic boys are taught from an early age

3:23:553:23:59

'how to manage their disorder.'

3:23:593:24:00

That's my good friend Simon, bless him,

3:24:003:24:02

no longer with us any more.

3:24:023:24:04

And this is what we would have to do.

3:24:053:24:07

We'd have to learn how to mix your Factor VIII up,

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pop it in a bottle, give it a mix

3:24:093:24:12

and then learn to inject it.

3:24:123:24:14

And it wasn't only patients who were impressed by Factor VIII.

3:24:143:24:18

I think that people were very excited by the success of Factor VIII.

3:24:183:24:23

There were a number of physicians across the country

3:24:233:24:26

who saw the enormous benefits and became, I think,

3:24:263:24:31

quite overwhelmed by how wonderful things were, really.

3:24:313:24:35

But there were some concerns about Factor VIII.

3:24:363:24:40

It was made by pooling together the plasma

3:24:403:24:43

of thousands of blood donations in huge vats.

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And if just one donor had an infection,

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it would contaminate the whole batch.

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The biggest manufacturers were in America

3:24:533:24:56

where people were often paid to give blood.

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And those who needed the money

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were also those most likely to be carrying infections.

3:25:013:25:04

The NHS was already importing American Factor VIII

3:25:063:25:10

when David Owen became Health Minister.

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There was an appalling situation for collecting blood

3:25:133:25:19

from people who were in prisons, from people who were on drugs.

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And yet we continued to use these blood supplies.

3:25:233:25:26

A common infection was hepatitis.

3:25:283:25:30

But doctors felt the benefits of Factor VIII outweighed the risks.

3:25:313:25:36

I think it was fair to say that hepatitis didn't seem to be

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a serious problem at that time.

3:25:423:25:45

The UK did make some of its own Factor VIII.

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All blood products have a degree of risk,

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but British Factor VIII was thought to be safer

3:25:523:25:55

because donors here were not paid.

3:25:553:25:57

In Scotland, they tried to avoid using American products altogether.

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We took the view that this stuff is lethal.

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We took the view that this is sleepwalking to disaster.

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Right from the word go.

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David Owen was determined

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that the rest of the UK should also avoid American imports.

3:26:153:26:19

What we had to decide was to increase our own blood supplies

3:26:203:26:26

from our own blood transfusion service

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at every level of blood transfusion.

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And that's a decision we took in '75 - to become self-sufficient.

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But David Owen left the Department of Health in 1976.

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And self-sufficiency was never achieved.

3:26:433:26:46

The winner there is the pharmaceutical industry.

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The losers in that situation are the patients.

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For the patients to win, they want stuff coming from a safe source.

3:26:553:27:01

And that didn't materialise.

3:27:033:27:06

As was needed south of the border.

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The Department of Health told us they tried to make Britain

3:27:113:27:14

self-sufficient, but supply couldn't keep up with demand.

3:27:143:27:18

So they had to rely on American products.

3:27:183:27:22

We understood that there were risks.

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What we didn't understand was the magnitude

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of what was about to happen.

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'Bobby Campbell is one of a rapidly growing group

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'whose battle has fascinated and frightened modern medicine.'

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In 1981, reports began to appear in America

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about a mysterious new disease.

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These were the first signs of what we now call AIDS.

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It's definitely transmissible, just how, I don't know.

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Is it through blood, is it through saliva?

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Nobody knew what it was due to.

3:28:033:28:05

People thought it might well be a transmissible agent,

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probably a virus.

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But people also talked about, of course, the homosexual community,

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the possibility that it might be related to things like poppers,

3:28:143:28:17

the so-called sexually enhancing drugs that people were using.

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AIDS hotline.

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Then, in January 1982,

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the first American haemophiliac was identified with AIDS.

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By the end of the year, there have been nine reported cases,

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and eight of them have died.

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Newspapers here soon raised questions

3:28:363:28:39

about the safety of American blood products.

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There was a Daily Mail story...

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and it was front page.

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Haemophiliacs are at risk from AIDS.

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And that was again a mark that was on a coffee table somewhere

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and you just see the word haemophiliac and AIDS.

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"Hospitals using killer blood."

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Well, that is pretty emotive...

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..by any standard.

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I would arrive in my office about half past seven in the morning,

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and very often, I'd still be there at seven o'clock at night,

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having spent my entire day with the telephone glued to my ear

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with calls from anxiety-ridden patients.

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The Haemophilia Society turned to the country's leading specialist,

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Professor Arthur Bloom.

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He wrote this letter, which was sent out to patients,

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saying that it had not been proven that blood products

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transmitted AIDS, and that the number of cases

3:29:493:29:53

among American haemophiliacs was small.

3:29:533:29:56

We felt that there was a reassurance to be given to patients

3:29:563:30:01

based on what we knew at that time.

3:30:013:30:05

But it's now clear that Professor Bloom knew much more

3:30:053:30:08

than he was telling.

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Eight weeks before he wrote to patients,

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he received this letter,

3:30:133:30:15

which has only recently been made public.

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In it, a leading American specialist, Dr Bruce Evatt,

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tells Bloom that there are already 13 haemophiliacs with AIDS

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in the US.

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They had all been given Factor VIII.

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It would only be a matter of time,

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Evatt suspected, before cases appeared in the UK.

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And on 6th May, the first UK case was reported,

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in Cardiff, where Professor Bloom practised.

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At this point, the head of disease control in England and Wales

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stepped in.

3:30:513:30:53

Dr Spence Galbraith wrote to the Department of Health.

3:30:533:30:56

"All blood products made from blood donated in the USA,"

3:30:563:31:00

he said, "should be withdrawn from use."

3:31:003:31:04

But if that happened, doctors wouldn't have enough Factor VIII

3:31:063:31:10

to treat their patients.

3:31:103:31:12

If that advice had been followed,

3:31:123:31:15

haemophilia care in the United Kingdom would have collapsed.

3:31:153:31:18

There were some very difficult decisions to be made

3:31:183:31:21

around that time. In that one year leading up to the middle of 1983,

3:31:213:31:26

ten people in Britain with haemophilia had died

3:31:263:31:30

of bleeding into the brain.

3:31:303:31:32

Bleeding was the commonest cause of death.

3:31:323:31:34

And in July, the panel that advised the Government on the safety

3:31:343:31:38

of medicines rejected Dr Galbraith's advice.

3:31:383:31:42

The cause of AIDS was unknown, they said,

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and the level of risk did not justify

3:31:453:31:48

withdrawing American products.

3:31:483:31:51

With the hindsight of what happened next,

3:31:513:31:55

you might say, well, actually, perhaps Dr Galbraith was right,

3:31:553:31:59

and perhaps we should have stopped treating people with haemophilia,

3:31:593:32:02

but it didn't seem like it at the time.

3:32:023:32:04

That summer, Adrian Goodyear was spending the school holidays

3:32:063:32:10

at home with his family.

3:32:103:32:12

I was down in Portsmouth,

3:32:123:32:15

I was about 13.

3:32:153:32:17

I was mixing up my dose at home

3:32:183:32:20

because, by then, I'd learned how to mix up my own injection.

3:32:203:32:24

I'd mixed my jab, took it,

3:32:263:32:28

but a week after that jab, I felt terrible.

3:32:283:32:32

Glands went billy-o.

3:32:323:32:34

Mum...

3:32:343:32:35

..took me back to our local GP several times in that summer.

3:32:373:32:40

So, yeah, '83.

3:32:433:32:45

That was my day.

3:32:453:32:47

It was definitely HIV coming in.

3:32:473:32:49

There was a period where I was ill for 12 months.

3:32:513:32:55

It was like the worst case of flu that I've ever had.

3:32:553:32:59

I couldn't shake it off.

3:32:593:33:01

I was at Treloar's for the whole of that time,

3:33:013:33:04

and talking to my mum on the phone and she was,

3:33:043:33:06

"I can't believe you've still got that cold. What's wrong?"

3:33:063:33:09

Then she raised it with the doctors

3:33:093:33:11

and they were, "We just think it's a cold. He's just having a job

3:33:113:33:14

"fighting it off."

3:33:143:33:16

But looking back, something wasn't right.

3:33:163:33:20

Joseph and Adrian's medical records

3:33:233:33:25

show that, privately, their doctors were concerned about AIDS.

3:33:253:33:29

But both say it was not discussed with them or their parents.

3:33:293:33:34

In Newport, Janet and Colin Smith

3:33:403:33:42

had only just discovered that their son had haemophilia.

3:33:423:33:45

Aw...

3:33:453:33:47

-A self-portrait, that one.

-Yeah.

3:33:483:33:50

I love that picture.

3:33:503:33:52

Baby Colin was nine months old at the time,

3:33:523:33:55

and doctors were about to give him Factor VIII.

3:33:553:33:59

His parents say they were told nothing about the risks.

3:33:593:34:03

They never, ever discussed...

3:34:033:34:06

I mean, when Colin had the Factor VIII,

3:34:063:34:08

it was just the Factor VIII,

3:34:083:34:10

and that was the end of it, do you know what I mean?

3:34:103:34:13

We were told that the treatment given was safe, 100% safe.

3:34:133:34:16

Turns out it wasn't.

3:34:163:34:18

But it's clear senior doctors knew there were risks

3:34:203:34:23

and were trying to manage them.

3:34:233:34:25

This letter was sent out to haemophilia centres in June 1983,

3:34:253:34:30

eight weeks before Colin Smith was first treated.

3:34:303:34:34

It recommended that children should be treated with NHS concentrates.

3:34:343:34:39

But in baby Colin's case, that advice wasn't followed,

3:34:423:34:46

and in August 1983,

3:34:463:34:47

he was given his first dose of American Factor VIII,

3:34:473:34:51

just before his first birthday.

3:34:513:34:53

His parents still don't know why that happened.

3:34:533:34:57

By now, questions were also being asked in Parliament,

3:35:003:35:03

but the Government, too, seemed keen to avoid discussing the risks

3:35:033:35:07

from Factor VIII.

3:35:073:35:09

Minister of Health Kenneth Clarke's message to the public was emphatic.

3:35:093:35:14

There was no conclusive evidence that AIDS was transmitted

3:35:143:35:18

by blood products.

3:35:183:35:20

Jason Evans's father was diagnosed with severe haemophilia

3:35:313:35:35

in the late 1960s.

3:35:353:35:37

By the 1980s, Jonathan Evans was working in a DIY shop.

3:35:373:35:42

This is my dad's first job.

3:35:423:35:45

He wanted to be a carpenter.

3:35:453:35:48

He's 18 here.

3:35:483:35:50

He's looking very fresh-faced.

3:35:503:35:52

I think Factor VIII certainly made life easier for him.

3:35:523:35:56

Jason wasn't born when this film was shot,

3:35:583:36:01

but he's recently discovered that, in late 1984,

3:36:013:36:05

Jonathan Evans raised concerns with his doctors about Factor VIII.

3:36:053:36:10

He switched over to another treatment for haemophilia

3:36:123:36:15

that had been used in the 1960s - cryoprecipitate.

3:36:153:36:18

-NEWS REPORT:

-This precipitate, containing the missing Factor VIII,

3:36:183:36:23

must be thawed in warm water...

3:36:233:36:25

Each bag of cryoprecipitate came from just one donor,

3:36:253:36:28

so was far less likely to be contaminated than Factor VIII.

3:36:283:36:32

But it was cumbersome and less effective.

3:36:323:36:35

Cryoprecipitate is very difficult to use,

3:36:353:36:38

it's difficult to thaw out, it's difficult to mix,

3:36:383:36:40

it's difficult to give,

3:36:403:36:42

and it causes more allergic responses.

3:36:423:36:45

Reverting to cryoprecipitate was not recommended by most doctors.

3:36:453:36:50

After one treatment, Jonathan Evans went back to Factor VIII.

3:36:503:36:54

I know, through speaking to my mother, obviously,

3:36:543:36:57

he'd spoken to her, and the physicians had advised him

3:36:573:37:01

that it was really nothing to worry about,

3:37:013:37:04

this is kind of sensationalism and not to pay attention to it,

3:37:043:37:08

and he trusted his doctor.

3:37:083:37:10

I think the moment there was a suspicion that

3:37:103:37:15

the AIDS virus may be in these products,

3:37:153:37:18

patients should have been given the choice of whether

3:37:183:37:22

they wanted to take that gamble

3:37:223:37:24

and play Russian roulette with their life,

3:37:243:37:26

and I can almost guarantee you that 99% of them

3:37:263:37:29

would not have taken that gamble.

3:37:293:37:32

The virus causing AIDS was finally identified in April 1984.

3:37:323:37:37

It would become known as HIV.

3:37:373:37:41

Later that year, a test became available,

3:37:413:37:43

and doctors began to discover the scale of the disaster

3:37:433:37:47

that they'd been part of.

3:37:473:37:49

We were asked to bleed all our regularly treated patients,

3:37:493:37:53

and send those blood samples for testing.

3:37:533:37:57

And about a month later,

3:37:593:38:01

I got into my office

3:38:013:38:03

and there were 31 brown envelopes on my desk,

3:38:033:38:06

and I opened the first one and it said, "Positive."

3:38:063:38:09

And I opened the second one and it said, "Positive."

3:38:093:38:12

And I opened the third one and it said, "Positive."

3:38:123:38:15

And after about nine or ten, I came to one that said, "Negative."

3:38:153:38:19

But all the rest were positive.

3:38:193:38:22

You don't go into medicine

3:38:223:38:25

to harm people.

3:38:253:38:27

In my case, the treatment I gave

3:38:273:38:30

not only didn't help, it actually killed patients.

3:38:303:38:34

It was absolutely desperate

3:38:363:38:38

to see a group of people who were being harmed by their treatment.

3:38:383:38:42

This was uncharted territory.

3:38:443:38:46

Doctors had no guidelines about testing patients

3:38:463:38:50

or how to break the news to them.

3:38:503:38:52

Adrian Goodyear was just 14 when he was called in

3:38:543:38:57

for a meeting with his doctors at Treloar's.

3:38:573:39:00

He had no idea that he'd even been tested for HIV.

3:39:003:39:04

We were asked to go as a group of five.

3:39:053:39:08

They went round the room one by one

3:39:093:39:12

and they went, "You have.

3:39:123:39:14

"You haven't.

3:39:143:39:16

"You have. You haven't."

3:39:163:39:17

Slowly and calmly,

3:39:173:39:19

who had HIV and who didn't.

3:39:193:39:21

Three out of the five boys in that room that day

3:39:213:39:25

were HIV positive.

3:39:253:39:27

And I was one of them.

3:39:293:39:31

I looked out the windows, the sunshine was coming in.

3:39:333:39:36

And there was a moment of, that's my last sun.

3:39:363:39:40

That is my last sun.

3:39:413:39:44

We've had it. We're dead. We're all dead.

3:39:453:39:47

Colin Smith was in hospital being given more Factor VIII

3:39:543:39:58

when his parents were given the news.

3:39:583:40:01

-We were told in a corridor, actually.

-Yeah.

3:40:013:40:04

We weren't taken into a room and,

3:40:043:40:06

"Sit down, we need to tell you something."

3:40:063:40:09

They said, "Colin's tested positive for HIV."

3:40:103:40:13

Well, we didn't even know what it was, really. We just went, "OK."

3:40:133:40:16

That's how we were told.

3:40:163:40:18

In the corridor of a ward with other children running past us.

3:40:183:40:23

Joseph Peaty was 19

3:40:263:40:28

and had just left Treloar's.

3:40:283:40:30

I was in hospital with a bleed

3:40:303:40:33

and it was a registrar that was going around in the evening,

3:40:333:40:36

and he said, "Do you mind me having a chat to you about haemophilia?"

3:40:363:40:40

And he was going through my notes and,

3:40:403:40:42

"Oh, I see that you're HIV positive."

3:40:423:40:46

By now, Joseph had a girlfriend

3:40:473:40:50

and was thinking of going to university.

3:40:503:40:53

That's a bit of a mind-blowing thing to suddenly have to

3:40:543:40:57

get your head round.

3:40:573:40:59

This is...

3:40:593:41:00

This is a death sentence.

3:41:003:41:02

Your life has just kind of been mapped out

3:41:023:41:05

and you've got two or three years,

3:41:053:41:08

and as far as you know, that's going to be it.

3:41:083:41:11

You know? Turmoil.

3:41:133:41:15

Complete turmoil.

3:41:153:41:17

Jonathan Evans was also tested without his knowledge.

3:41:223:41:26

It was seven months later before he was told.

3:41:263:41:30

My mum was with him, and they were called in to the doctor's office

3:41:323:41:35

and the doctor basically told them both quite bluntly

3:41:353:41:40

that my dad had tested positive for HIV.

3:41:403:41:44

He first tested positive in 1984.

3:41:473:41:50

He wasn't told about that

3:41:503:41:53

till mid-1985, which is, you know, shocking in itself,

3:41:533:41:57

that they would withhold that knowledge,

3:41:573:42:00

obviously putting my mum at risk

3:42:003:42:03

and putting his family at risk.

3:42:033:42:05

Across the world,

3:42:183:42:20

scientists were desperately trying to discover

3:42:203:42:22

how to make blood products safe from HIV.

3:42:223:42:25

They thought that heating the Factor VIII might work.

3:42:253:42:29

And even before the research was conclusive,

3:42:323:42:35

some doctors had switched to experimental heat-treated products.

3:42:353:42:39

We were criticised quite heavily.

3:42:423:42:44

It was just one of those, frankly,

3:42:443:42:47

very rare moments, as a doctor,

3:42:473:42:49

where you have to make a decision which, later on, you look back on

3:42:493:42:54

and say, "Well, I got plenty of decisions wrong,

3:42:543:42:57

"but that one was right,"

3:42:573:42:59

and I, actually, probably did save some lives.

3:42:593:43:02

At the end of 1984,

3:43:033:43:06

US researchers concluded that heat treatment

3:43:063:43:08

did inactivate HIV.

3:43:083:43:10

But there had just been another devastating discovery.

3:43:123:43:15

For the first time, HIV was found in UK blood donations.

3:43:153:43:20

Now not even British Factor VIII was safe from the virus.

3:43:213:43:25

In Scotland, they immediately started making their own

3:43:253:43:30

heat-treated products,

3:43:303:43:32

but in England, things moved much more slowly.

3:43:323:43:35

The evidence was there in the autumn of 1984,

3:43:353:43:39

that heat treatment did inactivate HIV,

3:43:393:43:43

so there was very strong evidence there that the Department of Health

3:43:433:43:46

should have been looking at,

3:43:463:43:48

and yet it takes another nine months for the country

3:43:483:43:52

to be switched over to safer treatment,

3:43:523:43:55

during which time some people probably got infected.

3:43:553:43:59

Sarah's husband was treated at just this time.

3:44:043:44:08

She avoided infection, but wants to remain anonymous.

3:44:083:44:11

She's never told his story publicly before.

3:44:133:44:15

Was my heart broken? Yes.

3:44:183:44:19

Did he suffer? Yes.

3:44:193:44:20

Was it prejudice? Was it pain?

3:44:203:44:22

Was it fear? Was it humiliation?

3:44:223:44:24

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

3:44:243:44:25

On December 16th 1984,

3:44:263:44:29

Sarah's husband had to go to hospital with a serious bleed.

3:44:293:44:33

It was the first time he'd needed treatment for his haemophilia

3:44:333:44:36

in 13 years.

3:44:363:44:38

The significance of this is that when he went for that treatment,

3:44:393:44:42

he would not have been previously exposed to HIV

3:44:423:44:45

and, more importantly, they knew that.

3:44:453:44:48

In fact, just a few days earlier,

3:44:503:44:52

senior doctors had issued new guidelines which said

3:44:523:44:56

that patients not previously exposed to untreated blood products

3:44:563:45:00

should be given cryoprecipitate

3:45:003:45:03

or heated NHS Factor VIII if available.

3:45:033:45:07

Sarah's husband was given unheated Factor VIII.

3:45:133:45:16

Bearing in mind that they knew that there was this massive risk

3:45:183:45:21

from unheated product,

3:45:213:45:23

not only did they give him an unheated product,

3:45:233:45:26

which they shouldn't have done,

3:45:263:45:28

but they actually gave him multiple batches,

3:45:283:45:31

multiplying his risk several times over.

3:45:313:45:33

And when he was tested eight months later,

3:45:353:45:38

Sarah's husband was HIV positive.

3:45:383:45:41

He died in 1998, aged 40.

3:45:413:45:44

The proper treatment for my husband was heated Factor VIII.

3:45:453:45:50

Now, if it were that the clinician did not have access

3:45:503:45:53

to that clotting factor,

3:45:533:45:55

then it just means that the person who is responsible

3:45:553:45:58

is further up the chain.

3:45:583:46:00

What I want people to go away with is not how sad it was,

3:46:013:46:05

but how wrong it was.

3:46:053:46:07

It wasn't until September 1985

3:46:133:46:16

that most Factor VIII in Britain was safe from HIV,

3:46:163:46:20

but for those who'd been infected, the damage had been done...

3:46:203:46:24

AIDS has reached epidemic proportions.

3:46:243:46:27

..and the entire country was now

3:46:303:46:32

in the grip of an AIDS scare.

3:46:323:46:35

48% believed AIDS victims only had themselves to blame.

3:46:353:46:40

Later that night, it's claimed, the man's home was firebombed.

3:46:403:46:43

We were known as "the AIDS family".

3:46:453:46:47

We weren't known as the Smith family.

3:46:493:46:51

We were the AIDS family.

3:46:513:46:53

It was written on the side of the house, yeah.

3:46:533:46:55

-That was huge.

-That was, just, "AIDS", in big capital letters.

3:46:553:46:59

So that was the time we said,

3:47:013:47:02

"We've got to move, can't stay here."

3:47:023:47:04

You'd get horrible phone calls in the middle of the night

3:47:043:47:07

and things like that.

3:47:073:47:08

It was a horrendous time. It was horrendous.

3:47:083:47:11

At Treloar's, journalists turned up looking for a story.

3:47:133:47:18

There was two guys standing at the gate

3:47:183:47:21

and asked us, "Hello, boys.

3:47:213:47:23

"Are you haemophiliacs?"

3:47:233:47:25

And a friend of mine went, "Yeah," as you do, a bit defensive.

3:47:253:47:31

Um...and they said,

3:47:313:47:32

"So, what you think about AIDS, then? Have you got AIDS?"

3:47:323:47:35

Luckily, the older boy said, "No comment."

3:47:373:47:40

You know, that's crazy, isn't it?

3:47:403:47:42

You're going down to the shops to get your sweets and your tin of pop,

3:47:423:47:45

and there's two journalists at the gate, asking you questions.

3:47:453:47:48

And that happened two or three times.

3:47:483:47:50

For Jason Evans' parents,

3:47:533:47:54

AIDS meant having to make an agonising decision.

3:47:543:47:57

-VIDEO:

-'And what have you called him?'

3:47:593:48:00

'Jason. JJ, for short.'

3:48:003:48:03

'That got anything to do with Dallas, do you reckon?'

3:48:033:48:05

'No, nothing to do with Dallas. That's JR.'

3:48:053:48:08

My mum and dad wanted a child,

3:48:093:48:11

but obviously, my dad didn't want to infect my mum,

3:48:113:48:13

and my mum didn't want to be infected.

3:48:133:48:16

But they took a risk, and here I am.

3:48:163:48:19

-VIDEO:

-'JJ at three days old, on video.'

3:48:203:48:22

'Four.'

3:48:223:48:23

'Four days old.'

3:48:233:48:25

'He's forgotten the day already!'

3:48:253:48:27

The reason why he and my mum were taking videos

3:48:273:48:29

was for me to have something when I was older, to look back on.

3:48:293:48:33

-VIDEO:

-'# Happy birthday to you. #'

3:48:333:48:36

'Give it a blow.'

3:48:363:48:37

'Blow it out!'

3:48:373:48:39

My first memory of my dad is the last time I ever saw him.

3:48:413:48:45

CHILD YELLS ON VIDEO

3:48:453:48:47

It was my birthday, and obviously, I was four years old.

3:48:473:48:51

I remember walking into the room and he was on a bed.

3:48:513:48:55

I remember just being stood in that room for a period of time

3:48:553:48:59

and just, kind of, looking at him,

3:48:593:49:00

but not really understanding what was happening.

3:49:003:49:05

Six weeks after Jason's fourth birthday,

3:49:073:49:09

Jonathan Evans died.

3:49:093:49:12

He was 31 years old.

3:49:123:49:13

Colin Smith was only seven.

3:49:183:49:21

Towards the end, we were picking our son up in sheepskin,

3:49:213:49:24

because we hurt him.

3:49:243:49:26

He'd lost so much weight.

3:49:263:49:28

He was skeletal, wasn't he?

3:49:283:49:30

They did actually say that he was not going to recover.

3:49:303:49:33

My exact words to the doctors then were,

3:49:363:49:38

"Well, if he's going to die, he's going to do it at home.

3:49:383:49:40

"Not here."

3:49:403:49:41

He said to his brother, Daniel, "You'll miss me when I'm gone."

3:49:413:49:44

So he did know.

3:49:443:49:46

We used to have some long discussions,

3:49:473:49:49

cos he couldn't sleep.

3:49:493:49:51

"Why me?"

3:49:513:49:52

I couldn't explain that one to him.

3:49:523:49:54

Saturday, 4:40.

3:49:563:49:58

He just suddenly sat up and said, "Daddy, I can't see."

3:49:583:50:01

So we knew something was going on then.

3:50:013:50:04

-He was dead within a couple of minutes, wasn't he?

-Yeah.

3:50:043:50:06

-Yeah.

-Very peacefully.

3:50:063:50:08

I picked him up in my arms, for about two-and-a-half hours,

3:50:123:50:17

and then the undertakers came, then, and we had to say goodbye.

3:50:173:50:20

The group which represents Britain's haemophiliacs

3:50:353:50:38

is calling on the government to pay up to £200 million in compensation.

3:50:383:50:42

By 1989, more than 1,200 people in the UK

3:50:433:50:47

were known to have been infected with HIV from contaminated blood

3:50:473:50:52

and over 900 of them decided to sue the government for negligence.

3:50:523:50:56

Surely, Mr Speaker, they would urgently compensate

3:50:563:51:01

haemophiliacs who have contracted the HIV virus.

3:51:013:51:05

The government offered a package of financial support

3:51:073:51:11

without admitting liability.

3:51:113:51:13

-REPORTER:

-Haemophiliacs who were given infected blood are expected

3:51:133:51:16

to receive a lump sum payment in the region of £20,000.

3:51:163:51:20

I did...I did think of pounds.

3:51:213:51:24

"How much? How much for my life?"

3:51:243:51:27

I was eyeing up stereos in Curry's.

3:51:273:51:30

No, genuinely, I was.

3:51:323:51:34

We were going to die of this.

3:51:343:51:36

In that period, we were going to die.

3:51:363:51:38

So £23,500 was an awful lot of money

3:51:383:51:41

for a 22, 21, 23-year-old.

3:51:413:51:44

But the final settlement had a catch.

3:51:453:51:48

We had to sign a waiver

3:51:483:51:50

to say that we wouldn't take any further action in respect of HIV,

3:51:503:51:57

but tagged on to the end of it - in the last hours, it seems -

3:51:573:52:02

was "and hepatitis viruses".

3:52:023:52:05

The victims agreed to sign.

3:52:073:52:10

But scientists had only recently identified the virus

3:52:103:52:14

for hepatitis C

3:52:143:52:16

and the severity of the disease was only now becoming apparent.

3:52:163:52:20

Later that year, when a test became available,

3:52:203:52:22

haemophiliacs with HIV began to discover

3:52:223:52:25

they also had hepatitis C.

3:52:253:52:28

We felt conned.

3:52:303:52:31

Definitely conned.

3:52:323:52:34

Because three months after we signed our legal rights away,

3:52:343:52:37

we had hep C.

3:52:373:52:38

I think it was devious. It was downright underhand.

3:52:403:52:43

It just makes me plain angry, really,

3:52:433:52:45

to think that they were playing with our lives

3:52:453:52:46

and they were still looking for the cheapest way out.

3:52:463:52:49

Hepatitis C can cause permanent liver damage and even cancer.

3:52:513:52:56

The virus was present in British blood and blood products

3:52:563:52:59

as well as American.

3:52:593:53:01

So it wasn't only haemophiliacs who were affected -

3:53:013:53:05

anyone who had a blood transfusion was also at risk.

3:53:053:53:08

Michelle Tolley is 52.

3:53:133:53:16

She was given blood twice after having children.

3:53:183:53:21

I had my first child in 1987.

3:53:223:53:26

I haemorrhaged quite a lot, actually,

3:53:263:53:28

to the point of needing half of my blood...body's blood.

3:53:283:53:33

And then with the twins, when they were born,

3:53:333:53:35

I had to have two pints.

3:53:353:53:36

So if it wasn't '87, it was definitely '91.

3:53:363:53:40

A few years later, the NHS ran a campaign

3:53:423:53:45

to encourage people who had been given transfusions to get tested.

3:53:453:53:49

I went along to my GP at the time then,

3:53:503:53:54

to enquire, to just be told to...

3:53:543:53:57

"Don't be silly, you won't have that."

3:53:593:54:01

Um...which made me feel like a silly little child

3:54:013:54:05

that was just wasting somebody's time.

3:54:053:54:08

If Michelle had been tested in the 1990s,

3:54:093:54:12

she could have been treated sooner.

3:54:123:54:15

She wasn't diagnosed until the end of 2015.

3:54:153:54:18

Within six months, she was too ill to work.

3:54:183:54:22

I get angry days - really, really angry -

3:54:223:54:25

where I feel like...I'm being deprived of my life.

3:54:253:54:31

Michelle was put on a course of treatment to clear her infection,

3:54:353:54:38

but she has had to endure terrible side effects.

3:54:383:54:41

-VOICE BREAKING:

-I've really got no energy at all.

3:54:443:54:49

All I'm doing is sleeping.

3:54:493:54:52

Sleeping and sleeping and sleeping.

3:54:523:54:55

I've got a really horrible feeling...

3:54:553:55:00

that I'm not going to survive this.

3:55:003:55:02

I've never felt this emotional before. Ever.

3:55:063:55:10

I've still got seven weeks to go.

3:55:133:55:17

For people with HIV,

3:55:253:55:27

the damage caused by hepatitis C can be even worse.

3:55:273:55:31

Adrian has only recently finished his own course of treatment.

3:55:323:55:36

He's never developed AIDS,

3:55:373:55:38

but he has to keep taking life-saving drugs for his HIV.

3:55:383:55:42

In the '80s, he was well enough to get a job in the music industry.

3:55:453:55:49

First stage pass was this one here,

3:55:523:55:54

which was a UK Bucks Fizz tour.

3:55:543:55:57

Subsequently employed by them for about seven years.

3:55:573:56:00

I became their tour manager for a little while as well,

3:56:003:56:03

which was quite good.

3:56:033:56:05

I did Ant and Dec, that's a standout.

3:56:053:56:07

Up here we have Mr Gary Numan, of all people.

3:56:073:56:11

Some good stuff. I loved every single minute of it.

3:56:113:56:14

Then, after four years of UK gigs,

3:56:153:56:18

Adrian got his big break - the chance to go on a world tour.

3:56:183:56:22

The problem was that I found out I couldn't get insurance.

3:56:223:56:26

Because of HIV, I could not go abroad.

3:56:263:56:28

The minute I said HIV, over.

3:56:283:56:31

I knew then that the game was up.

3:56:313:56:34

I was getting a bit poorly.

3:56:343:56:36

I kind of backed off from it all, really.

3:56:363:56:39

I thought, "Well, I've had my moment,"

3:56:393:56:43

so my career was cut short.

3:56:433:56:45

Dropped a bit of that.

3:56:493:56:51

Adrian still helps out occasionally, but it's not a living any more.

3:56:513:56:57

That's all I wanted to do.

3:56:573:56:59

It's a rock and roll cliche, but it was all about the gig.

3:56:593:57:03

I wanted the gig.

3:57:033:57:04

Joseph Peaty has been left severely disabled by his illnesses,

3:57:093:57:14

and dependant on others for his daily care.

3:57:143:57:16

My immune system had got to a point where it was crippled,

3:57:193:57:22

and any immunity I had left just went over a cliff.

3:57:223:57:27

I was someone who looked like that classical AIDS case.

3:57:303:57:34

I looked like I really hadn't got long for this world at all.

3:57:343:57:37

Intensive treatment saved Joseph's life,

3:57:393:57:42

but he had to give up his job in a school finance department.

3:57:423:57:46

I can try and make the best out of life now, such as it is,

3:57:463:57:50

there's no way that it's ever going to restore to me

3:57:503:57:52

all those hopes and dreams I had as a teenager.

3:57:523:57:54

No way I'm going to have a family.

3:57:543:57:57

But if I want to carry on, then I've got to keep taking this.

3:57:573:58:00

That comes with it a really heavy burden and a reminder, every day,

3:58:003:58:06

of what happened and why I reached this point.

3:58:063:58:09

Joseph and Adrian have survived,

3:58:123:58:15

but of the haemophiliacs who were at Treloar's,

3:58:153:58:18

72 have died after being infected with hepatitis C

3:58:183:58:22

or HIV or both.

3:58:223:58:25

Every year, The Haemophilia Society holds a service

3:58:303:58:33

to remember the victims of contaminated blood.

3:58:333:58:36

More than 1,200 people with bleeding disorders were infected with HIV,

3:58:473:58:52

and around 4,700 were infected with hepatitis C.

3:58:523:58:57

Each candle represents a life lost.

3:58:593:59:02

Contaminated blood was an international disaster

3:59:173:59:20

that cost thousands of lives.

3:59:203:59:22

In the 1990s, investigations began to find out who was to blame.

3:59:243:59:30

In America, the companies that supplied the infected products

3:59:333:59:37

had to pay millions in global out-of-court settlements.

3:59:373:59:40

In France, the former health minister

3:59:423:59:44

was found guilty of manslaughter,

3:59:443:59:46

and the former head of the blood transfusion service

3:59:463:59:49

and his deputy were jailed.

3:59:493:59:51

In Japan, three company executives went to prison,

3:59:523:59:56

and a former top official in the health ministry

3:59:563:59:58

was convicted on a charge of negligence resulting in death.

3:59:584:00:02

In Britain, nothing like that happened...

4:00:044:00:08

..and no-one was held responsible.

4:00:094:00:12

The victims and their families

4:00:124:00:14

were left wanting answers from the government.

4:00:144:00:17

Why did they keep importing American products

4:00:184:00:22

knowing that people were getting infected with HIV?

4:00:224:00:26

They knew the risks when they imported it.

4:00:264:00:28

They've devastated so many families and they're still burying

4:00:284:00:32

their head in the sand and denying any knowledge.

4:00:324:00:34

It took more than 20 years for the first inquiry to be held in the UK.

4:00:354:00:41

It was chaired by Lord Archer and reported in 2009.

4:00:414:00:45

The procrastination in achieving national self-sufficiency

4:00:454:00:50

had disastrous consequences.

4:00:504:00:52

Lord Archer criticised the government

4:00:534:00:55

for being slow to react to the crisis,

4:00:554:00:57

but he didn't find anyone to blame.

4:00:574:00:59

The Archer Inquiry was not a statutory inquiry.

4:01:014:01:04

It couldn't compel witnesses to attend,

4:01:044:01:07

and none of the ministers or civil servants

4:01:074:01:10

who dealt with the crisis did.

4:01:104:01:11

In Scotland, there was an official inquiry,

4:01:144:01:17

chaired by Lord Penrose, which took six years and cost £12 million.

4:01:174:01:23

But his report focused on Scotland,

4:01:234:01:25

and, once again, no-one from Westminster gave evidence.

4:01:254:01:29

Lord Penrose concluded that in Scotland, in relation to AIDS,

4:01:314:01:35

all that could reasonably be done was done,

4:01:354:01:39

and no-one was to blame.

4:01:394:01:41

Many of the victims were furious.

4:01:414:01:43

..service cover-up!

4:01:454:01:48

But it did prompt an apology from the Prime Minister.

4:01:484:01:52

I would like to say sorry on behalf of the government

4:01:524:01:55

for something that should not have happened.

4:01:554:01:57

Pardon?

4:01:574:01:59

Is that...? Six, seven... Is that all you're going to give us?

4:01:594:02:03

You're going to give us nothing. Nothing.

4:02:034:02:07

We were shocked. Shocked, shocked, shocked.

4:02:074:02:11

But after the Penrose report,

4:02:114:02:12

one thing became clear -

4:02:124:02:14

in England, where the government relied on American Factor VIII,

4:02:144:02:18

haemophiliacs were twice as likely to be infected with HIV

4:02:184:02:22

as those in Scotland, which made almost all its own supplies.

4:02:224:02:26

If you look at the difference in England and Scotland

4:02:284:02:32

in terms of the outcomes...

4:02:324:02:34

..you have to conclude that...

4:02:354:02:37

..it was not unavoidable. It was avoidable.

4:02:394:02:42

If you're a haemophilia doctor, it was beyond your control,

4:02:444:02:48

but in terms of the broad thrust of the difference between

4:02:484:02:51

England and Scotland, that's about government.

4:02:514:02:54

That's about government.

4:02:574:02:59

The truth about that has not yet been told.

4:02:594:03:02

Campaigners agree that despite the Archer and Penrose Inquiries,

4:03:044:03:08

ministers have never been properly held to account.

4:03:084:03:11

The former health minister Kenneth Clarke

4:03:144:03:16

would not give us an interview,

4:03:164:03:17

but he told us that blood products

4:03:174:03:19

were never his area of responsibility

4:03:194:03:21

and he would have attended the Penrose Inquiry if he'd been asked.

4:03:214:03:25

Jason is now trying to find out for himself

4:03:304:03:33

how his father came to be infected.

4:03:334:03:35

He expected the answers to be in his father's medical records.

4:03:374:03:41

My dad actually tried to get his medical records

4:03:414:03:45

at a time when there would have been obviously a legal obligation

4:03:454:03:50

on the hospital to have these records, however,

4:03:504:03:54

despite many attempts, he never actually got the medical records.

4:03:544:03:59

The best he got was this 11-page summary.

4:03:594:04:04

When Jason contacted the hospital 25 years later,

4:04:044:04:07

they told him they had no records at all for his father.

4:04:074:04:11

Had I never met the rest of the affected community,

4:04:134:04:16

I probably could have accepted that and thought, "Out of time, too bad."

4:04:164:04:22

Then when I speak to the rest of the community,

4:04:224:04:26

almost every single one has exactly the same story,

4:04:264:04:29

and I don't think you can help but be suspicious.

4:04:294:04:33

But Panorama has discovered

4:04:354:04:37

the hospital does still have records for Jonathan Evans.

4:04:374:04:40

Three volumes of them.

4:04:414:04:44

Jason has now requested copies once more.

4:04:444:04:47

It's not only medical records that have proved hard to find.

4:04:504:04:54

It came as quite a surprise to me,

4:04:544:04:57

following my departure from the Haemophilia Society,

4:04:574:05:00

to learn that the files connected with the HIV crisis,

4:05:004:05:05

correspondence with members,

4:05:054:05:08

correspondence with the Department of Health, had all been destroyed.

4:05:084:05:14

You're bound to ask the question - why?

4:05:144:05:17

The trail of disappearing documents leads

4:05:194:05:21

right to the heart of government.

4:05:214:05:24

When David Owen asked for his ministerial papers

4:05:244:05:27

from the Department of Health, he was told that they'd been destroyed.

4:05:274:05:31

There are many of us who think that one of the reasons why you

4:05:354:05:37

can't get out a lot of these documents

4:05:374:05:39

was they cleaned them up

4:05:394:05:40

because there was a panic going around the world

4:05:404:05:43

in the middle '80s

4:05:434:05:45

that these issues would reach court.

4:05:454:05:48

The Department of Health told us Lord Archer had found

4:05:524:05:55

that no documents had been destroyed maliciously,

4:05:554:05:58

and there was no evidence of missing or amended medical records.

4:05:584:06:02

No evidence has been found of government negligence either.

4:06:064:06:09

But if it were, the victims could claim compensation,

4:06:114:06:15

which, they say, should be much more than the financial support they currently receive.

4:06:154:06:20

Not enough. We don't have enough.

4:06:214:06:24

If they called it compensation and gave us a proper package,

4:06:244:06:27

you would buy your house, you will become part of society,

4:06:274:06:30

you would not be on the sidelines of society.

4:06:304:06:34

That's how the money makes me feel,

4:06:344:06:36

that we are on the sidelines of society.

4:06:364:06:38

The wounds that exist now don't just come from the initial infections,

4:06:404:06:48

they come from the way it's been handled over three decades,

4:06:484:06:51

maybe longer.

4:06:514:06:54

If they want to heal these wounds properly,

4:06:544:06:57

then they've got to stop dealing with us on the cheap.

4:06:574:07:02

The Department of Health told us they are paying out

4:07:054:07:08

significantly more to victims now than any previous government.

4:07:084:07:12

Michelle has had six months of treatment,

4:07:174:07:20

and it seems to be working.

4:07:204:07:22

But even now it's not known how many others may have been infected

4:07:224:07:26

with hepatitis C, but not diagnosed.

4:07:264:07:29

So many people out there that are infected and they don't even know.

4:07:314:07:35

And as the years are going on, so many people have died,

4:07:354:07:40

and are still dying, and...

4:07:404:07:43

..I think that's probably what I'll die off in the end.

4:07:454:07:48

For three decades, appeals to the government

4:07:504:07:53

for a UK-wide public inquiry have fallen on deaf ears,

4:07:534:07:57

but in recent weeks the Haemophilia Society has intensified the debate.

4:07:574:08:01

They say they now have evidence the society was misled about Factor VIII.

4:08:024:08:07

The government, the pharmaceutical industry,

4:08:094:08:12

and UK doctors had information

4:08:124:08:14

that was not shared with

4:08:144:08:16

the Haemophilia Society and the community,

4:08:164:08:19

and that led to tragic consequences.

4:08:194:08:21

It's essential that we have an inquiry that can compel witnesses,

4:08:214:08:26

that can look and see if there was negligence,

4:08:264:08:30

can give the whole picture,

4:08:304:08:31

and can lead to compensation for the thousands of families

4:08:314:08:34

affected by this. We have to have the truth.

4:08:344:08:37

But public inquiries are lengthy and expensive,

4:08:394:08:42

and many people are not in favour.

4:08:424:08:44

Personally, I don't think there is any reason to undertake another

4:08:464:08:50

public inquiry in this area, I think it would lead to more distress

4:08:504:08:54

than it would lead to enlightenment.

4:08:544:08:58

It would create really no benefit in my view to anybody -

4:08:584:09:02

least of all, I'm afraid, to the people who were affected

4:09:024:09:06

at the time and who have my undying sympathy.

4:09:064:09:10

The Department of Health agrees.

4:09:114:09:14

It says all relevant documents have been released.

4:09:144:09:17

And, like her predecessors, Labour and Conservative,

4:09:184:09:22

the Prime Minister has ruled out a public inquiry.

4:09:224:09:25

# Walk on. Walk on... #

4:09:284:09:33

But the outcome of another tragedy might provide a way forward.

4:09:344:09:39

For the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough,

4:09:394:09:42

justice was achieved after an independent panel of inquiry

4:09:424:09:46

investigated the disaster.

4:09:464:09:48

Andy Burnham helped set it up.

4:09:484:09:50

Because it wasn't an adversarial courtroom process,

4:09:524:09:55

I think in the end it allows the truth to find its way out.

4:09:554:09:59

And I feel the same is needed here,

4:10:004:10:03

so that people can understand what has happened.

4:10:034:10:06

And in his final speech in the Commons, Andy Burnham made his case.

4:10:074:10:11

From what I know, I believe that this scandal

4:10:134:10:18

amounts to a criminal cover-up on an industrial scale.

4:10:184:10:23

Following today's debate, I will ask the Secretary of State

4:10:244:10:29

to set up a Hillsborough-style inquiry

4:10:294:10:32

straight after the general election.

4:10:324:10:35

And if the government don't do that,

4:10:354:10:38

I will refer the evidence that I have uncovered to the police

4:10:384:10:42

and request that a widespread criminal investigation commences.

4:10:424:10:46

Jason Evans now feels he has enough evidence to go to court.

4:10:484:10:52

I have now decided to instruct a legal firm to take a case

4:10:524:10:58

alleging negligence and breach of statutory duty

4:10:584:11:01

against the government and various bodies

4:11:014:11:04

for their role in this scandal, that ultimately led to

4:11:044:11:09

infecting my father with HIV through a product they knew to be dangerous.

4:11:094:11:14

I want the truth to go down on record about what happened here.

4:11:154:11:19

I think that truth is what everyone needs.

4:11:194:11:22

If Jason is successful it could open the way for many others

4:11:254:11:29

to get the answers they're still looking for.

4:11:294:11:32

It's 27 years since Colin died and we are still fighting.

4:11:334:11:38

There's thousands of people that have been,

4:11:404:11:43

their lives have been wrecked through imported blood, and

4:11:434:11:48

it should never, ever have happened, and I get angry about that.

4:11:484:11:53

I just think it's outrageous.

4:11:544:11:57

It's astonishing that something of that magnitude

4:11:574:12:00

still hasn't warranted an inquiry which the Department of Health

4:12:004:12:04

have to take part and answer for their actions.

4:12:044:12:08

The picture is still not complete, and what is needed is disclosure,

4:12:094:12:13

if they're ever going to bring about any form of healing at all

4:12:134:12:17

before everybody's dead and buried.

4:12:174:12:19

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