Fight for justice for infected blood victims will go to Europe

May 21 2009 by Sara Nichol, The Journal

Bad Blood campaign

THE Bad Blood campaign was launched by The Journal in 2000.

We teamed up with Haemophilia Action UK, to demand a public inquiry into how and why contaminated blood products were allowed into Britain, a mistake which led to the deaths of 78 haemophiliacs in the North East.

Peter Longstaff, of Jesmond, Newcastle, won legal aid to fight a controversial waiver from the Department of Health which he signed in 1991.

It also revealed that the Blood Products Laboratory had advised doctors not to tell patients that blood products used in transfusions were feared to have been taken from a donor infected with CJD.

The campaign, run by reporter Louella Houldcroft, won a string of awards. In 2007, the Government announced an independent public inquiry into the treatment of haemophiliacs in the 1970s and 1980s, partly due to the Journal’s campaign.

In February, campaigners praised The Journal after an independent inquiry condemned the importation of infected blood to Britain, saying we were an instrumental factor