- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Cameron Apologizes for Transfusions of Contaminated Blood

© Sputnik / Grigoriy Sisoev / Go to the mediabankA donor gives blood at the Blood Center
A donor gives blood at the Blood Center - Sputnik International
Subscribe
From hundreds to thousands of people contracted Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV through donor blood in Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s.

Feeding bottle - Sputnik International
Online-Sold Breast Milk Threatens UK Babies With Hepatitis, HIV – Report
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — British Prime Minister David Cameron has apologized to former patients who were given transfusions of infected blood, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The apology came shortly after a published report stated that from hundreds to thousands of people contracted Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV through donor blood in Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s.

The 1800-page Penrose Inquiry report said an estimated 2,500 transfusion patients were infected with HCV. Another 500 people were infected as a result of therapy for a bleeding disorder.

Nearly 80 people were found to have contracted HIV from contaminated blood over the 14-year period ending in 1991, according to the report.

A doctor draws medicine into a syringe - Sputnik International
New Guidelines Let UK Child Doctors Stop Life Support
The Penrose Inquiry recommended that everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 be tested for HCV.

The inquiry also looked into measures that could have minimized the risks noting that collection of blood from prisoners should have been stopped earlier than the early 1980s.

Scotland was the only part of the United Kingdom included in the inquiry.

HIV, which can lead to AIDS, was first identified in 1983. The first tests for HCV, an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, became available in 1989.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала