LONDON (AP) – A long-awaited inquiry opened Tuesday in Britain into how contaminated blood was used to treat thousands of people in the 1970s and ’80s, killing at least 2,400.
Thousands of hospital patients – many of them haemophiliacs – were infected with HIV or Hepatitis C through tainted blood products, largely imported from the United States.
Previous investigations have been branded a whitewash by victims’ campaigners. In 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May ordered a new inquiry, with the power to summon witnesses. The inquiry, led by a retired judge, will spend months hearing from victims in London and around the country.
As hearings began Tuesday, May said the blood scandal “was a tragedy that should never have happened.”
“Today will begin a journey which will be dedicated to getting to the truth of what happened and in delivering justice to everyone involved,” she said.
Victims accuse the government of failing to take responsibility for a scandal that has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of Britain’s public health care system.
The contaminated blood was linked to supplies of a clotting agent called Factor VIII, which British health services imported from the United States. Some of the products turned out to be infected. Some of the plasma used to make the blood products was traced to high-risk donors, including U.S. prison inmates, who were paid to give blood samples.
“If the government truly wants to do the right thing, they will provide a statement accepting their liability now,” said Jason Evans, whose father died in 1993 after receiving tainted blood.
History lesson:
Does anyone remember that when Bill Clinton was Gov.
of Arkansas he had all of the prisoners in the jails
that could give blood drained until they were the color
of faded parchment? He pulled in a fortune by selling the
blood during the first big AIDS outbreak. Much of the
blood was bought by Canada. Thousands of Canadians died
from the tainted blood. There were some lawsuits but once
he was running for President all of that just disappeared.
John- you gave me another proof for my maxim: whatever the corruption you can point to the Clintons where doing it longer, harder and with the power of the state behind them. Many thanks.
The Brits conducted multiple “previous investigations” so I’m sure that with all that practice they’ll get this one right.
Was the medical profession even aware of, and able to test for, those blood factors (HIV/AIDS, Hep C) at that time?
“Was the medical profession even aware of, and able to test for, those blood factors (HIV/AIDS, Hep C) at that time?”
YES
it was for that reason that clinton had the arkansas prisoner’s blood sold to ” Connaught, a Toronto blood-fractionator, which didn’t know the source of the supplies.”
(https://www.wnd.com/1998/09/1216/). It was illegal to sell that blood in the US, but not to others, outside the country. The blood was then re-sold to several foreign countries.
They knew, and that is exactly why they did what they did, and how they did it And it was done, and it is traceable. Blood products are tracked and recorded.
Ask joey biden about it- he’s the go to guy for morality today
Ah, but, was there intent?
Care to take a pass on that question james comey?
/I can do law stuff 😉
toby m,
TY, it was a legit question. I am now educated.
“delivering justice to everyone involved“
Ummm. I don’t think that is truly possible
@Toxic-
It was detectable, and that is why sale of blood products from prisoners was prohibited within the US. The firm that purchased the blood in canada is quoted that they don’t know where it came from. But it has been traced to those who provided it to them. As far as it being involved in the british investigation- I’m not sure, but if it was, they’ll absolutely try to hide that.
Someday they’ll look into the clinton foundation buying and donating outdated and ineffective medications for HIV/aids to India and African countries. They laundered a boatload of money with that maneuver.
I guess a lot of money can be made by both starting and then solving problems.
There is a movie specifically about clinton’s involvement in this. I have not seen it, but here is info on it: x
“Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_8:_The_Arkansas_Prison_Blood_Scandal
I’ve been off the stuff ever since…
This could be a long one and as I’m recovering from a surgery a week ago today I’m trying to type this one with one finder on left hand. Mistakes, they’ll be a few…
LONG STORY SHORT…
Big pharma killed my brother who was a hemophilia. Set aside the specific players, Amour, Baxter, Cutter, etc., etc., to include the politicians. They found out that they had sent out a tainted Factor VIII (HIV Positive) batch and held a board meeting. Option one was recall the product and heat treat it and possibly reissue with the virus having been killed by the heat treatment. Option two keep their mouths shut and deal with the wrongful death suits if they were found out. Takes many hundreds of units of blood for the extraction of the clotting factor for one dose making the product VERY EXPENSIVE. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to keep the hemophilia in supply and not hemorrhaging during the higher jeopardy periods.
WHAT VENUE DO YOU THINK THEY CHOSE?
So sometime later one of them had an attack of conscious and “ratted” them out. Major uproar with penalties, fines, etc., but many hemophilias dead and buried. This one is very OLD news if you or your loved ones were Hemophiliacs.
Remember Sir Elton and his helping the kid over here who died from the tainted product? My brother supplied the tainted product that killed many as he worked for “Care Mark” later bought out by Baxter. Killed him and added an unbelievable head problem as he felt the guilt when he didn’t know and it killed him also…
Big Pharma, some in the medical profession, many in the hierarchy of the Catlicker’s church, yeah, I have lots of love to give to all of them..
Well I suppose my thread killing ability might kick in here again, without many seeing this…
@Anymouse-
I saw it, and I’m saddened by the loss of your brother.
We’re on the same team with this one.
toby miles
Had two. The older one spent ELEVEN (11) calendar years in a hospital bed during the twenty two (22) that he lived. Had it much worse than the younger one.
Back then, every transfusion was a “stick,” no “IV’s” and one of his stays was NINE MONTHS WITH THIRTY FIVE HUNDRED UNITS OF PLASMA AND FIFTEEN HUNDRED UNITS OF WHOLE BLOOD. Sometimes as many as four going in at once (ankles, elbows) nurses coming in with “spit trays” and scalpels to do cut downs to find a vein to transfuse into. No lidocaine or deadening while they did the digging. No insurance, so my parents had it pretty tough…
Anymouse-
Procedures, such as you provide, are not acceptable in today’s world, and are also not of my experience in the past.
I see a lot in your reply that I could perhaps respond to, but at this time I will refrain and again say you have my sympathies.
Was what it was… Born in the forties died early sixties.
And I must correct myself. Thinking about it and it was two to one, three thousand units of plasma and fifteen hundred unit of blood to be replaced on a one for one basis with blood drives held for my parents. Others were expected to replace at a higher rate.
Am also reminded that the Red Cross refused supply on one of his stays as he “was going to die anyway.” Lived a number of years after that episode and gave me bad feelings going forward for that outfit.
Believe my parents almost paid for a wing on St Francis Hospital in Evanston by themselves. Don’t know what the hospital is called today.
John, facts agree with you.
FEBRUARY 2008
CLINTON’S ARKANSAS BLOOD SCANDAL STILL DRIPPING
MARCH 2006
“OCTOBER 2005
CLINTON BLOOD SCANDAL ERUPTS IN SCOTLAND
DAILY RECORD, SCOTLAND – Former US President Bill Clinton may be forced to appear in court
over a medical scandal which claimed the lives of innocent Scots. Many hemophiliacs
were infected with hepatitis C after tainted blood from American prisoners was imported into the UK.
Glasgow firm Thomsons are representing the families of Scots sufferers who died after contracting the disease.
They allege inmates in an Arkansas jail were paid to donate blood despite the authorities knowing they had AIDS and hepatitis.
They are threatening to call the ex-president, who was state governor at the time, to the witness stand.
The infected blood was used to make clotting agents for hemophiliacs who require regular blood transfusions
Frank Maguire, of Thomsons, said “These allegations are extremely serious and I am now
more sure than ever that there should be a full public inquiry into why so many Scots contracted hepatitis C
from infected blood products.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16314330&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=clinton-s-scottish-court-warning–name_page.html”
http://prorev.com/blood.htm
Bill Clinton And The Deadly Arkansas Tainted Blood Scandal
Jan 29, 2018 by Kelleigh Nelson
“For more than two decades, the Arkansas prison system sold blood plasma from inmates infected with viral hepatitis and AIDS.
Blood from prisons was 69 times more contaminated than that of the general population of donors.
Thousands of unwitting victims died as a result from receiving transfusions from a product called Factor 8
made from this blood. Factor 8 is a clotting protein to stop or prevent bleeding in people with hemophilia.
Governor Bill Clinton and HMA
Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas when the Canadian blood supply was contaminated in the mid-80s.
He was familiar with the operations of the now defunct Health Management Associates (HMA).
They were the Arkansas firm that was given a contract by Clinton’s state administration to provide medical care to prisoners.”
https://newswithviews.com/bill-clinton-and-the-deadly-arkansas-tainted-blood-scandal/
Matters little to those infected where it came from, just as dead.
The damning to me is many knew at some point the product was tainted and did nothing. You reach a point where you catch yourself saying, “I couldn’t become more jaded.”
Caused my brother to believe he was responsible for the deaths of many he cared about/for when he in fact was not. He did everything in his power to get the word out when he became aware of the problem. A very few are still alive who they infected as over time the treatment of HIV has made great strides.
Never underestimate the level to which any human can sink or the level of stupidity. The possible rhetorical question is, “If you know heat treatment kills the virus why would that not be an automatic in the process?” They were making tons and I seriously doubt the additional process would have made it unprofitable and they could have raised the price if it did.
The development of Factor VIII was a miracle for the hemophilia that then caused many to perish.
Don’t know the current status of any of this now as it stopped being important after his death…
From wikipedia
This transfer of a plasma byproduct into the blood stream of a hemophiliac often led to the transmission of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis before purification methods were improved. In the early 1990s, pharmaceutical companies began to produce recombinant synthesized factor products, which now prevent nearly all forms of disease transmission during replacement therapy.