Contaminated blood inquiry: Matt Hancock to give evidence

The health secretary will face questions about compensation for victims of the contaminated blood scandal on Friday afternoon. Matt Hancock will give evidence at a public inquiry into what's been called the worst NHS treatment disaster.

Around 3,000 people have died after being given blood containing HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ministers announced a public inquiry into the scandal in 2017 after decades of campaigning by victims and their families. Nearly 5,000 people with the blood disorder haemophilia were infected with potentially fatal viruses after being given a clotting agent called Factor VIII.

Much of the drug was imported from the US, where prisoners and other at-risk groups were often paid to donate the plasma used to make it.

Victims included dozens of young haemophiliacs at a boarding school in Hampshire who died after contracting HIV as a result.

Tens of thousands more victims may have been exposed to viral hepatitis through blood transfusions after an operation or childbirth.

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Source: BBC News, 21 May 2021