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

Report lays bare a ‘catalogue of failures’ with ‘catastrophic’ consequences for victims and their loved ones.

British authorities and the public health service knowingly exposed tens of thousands of patients to deadly infections through contaminated blood and blood products and hid the truth about the disaster for decades, an inquiry into the scandal has found.

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

An estimated 3,000 people are believed to have died and many others were left with lifelong illnesses in what is widely seen as the deadliest disaster in the history of Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS) since its inception in 1948.

The bombshell report – published on Monday and 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 there were deliberate attempts to conceal the scandal, including evidence that government officials destroyed documents in 1993.