Contaminated Blood Scandal

The contaminated blood scandal is a health disaster in which thousands of people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C (hep C) viruses through treatment with contaminated blood or blood products. The deadly treatments were used by the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s and as many as 3,000 people have since lost their lives. Many of those infected were haemophiliacs. The disaster is now the subject of a public inquiry in the UK.