UK report finds decades-long infected blood scandal was covered up

London: A decades long UK scandal in which thousands of people died after being treated with infected blood was covered up and largely could have been...

London: A decades-long UK scandal in which thousands of people died after being treated with infected blood was covered up and largely could have been avoided, found a bombshell report published on Monday.

More than 30,000 people were infected with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis after being given contaminated blood between the 1970s and early 1990s, the Infected Blood Inquiry concluded.

More than 3,000 of them died in what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the eight-decade history of the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

The long-awaited report, running at more than 2,500 pages, laid bare a "catalogue of failures" with "catastrophic" consequences for victims and their loved ones.

Authored by judge Brian Langstaff, it found that there were deliberate attempts to conceal the scandal, including evidence that government officials destroyed documents in 1993.