Widow angered at leaked papers on blood scandal costs
Mar 24 2010 by Helen Rae, The Journal
A WIDOW whose haemophiliac husband died after receiving contaminated blood is angered at leaked documents showing Government viewed those affected by the bad blood scandal as simply a set of “cost figures”.
Papers leaked to a national newspaper show health officials were pre-occupied with controlling costs as the scandal of HIV – and hepatitis C – infected blood transfusions threatened the lives of haemophiliacs in the 1980s.
Carol Grayson, of Jesmond, Newcastle, lost her haemophiliac husband Peter Longstaff in 2005 after he contracted HIV and hepatitis C from infected NHS blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ms Grayson, a former nurse has constantly campaigned for compensation for victims of infected NHS blood transfusions.
But memos exchanged within the Department of Health in March 1985 discuss the extent to which the HIV infection would be likely to spread through the community.
Official, Michael Lloyd, warned about a third of Britain’s haemophiliacs were “sero-positive”, meaning they had antibodies to the virus that later came to be called HIV. About 8% each year and ultimately 40% of the total would develop Aids, he said.
The message’s recipient, John James, calculated up to 1,200 of the 5,000 haemophiliacs could develop Aids, for which, at that time, there was no treatment.
“Frightening figures,” he wrote. “But figures which also suggest that, however dispassionate the analysis, steps to prevent the remainder of the haemophiliac population becoming sero-positive are likely to have a strong cost-benefit plus in terms of lives saved.
