More than 30,000 people in the UK became infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

A public inquiry described the scale of the scandal as “appalling” and accused doctors, the Government and the NHS of repeatedly letting patients down.

The government says the first compensation payments to victims will be made by the end of the year.

Two main groups of NHS patients were affected by what has been called the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

First, people with haemophilia – and similar disorders – have a rare genetic condition that causes their blood to not clot properly., external

People with hemophilia A lack a clotting agent called factor VIII, while people with hemophilia B don’t have enough factor IX.

In the 1970s, a new treatment was developed using donated human blood plasma to replace these clotting factors.

But the entire batch was contaminated with the deadly virus.

About 1,250 people in Britain with bleeding disorders developed both HIV and hepatitis C after being given the infected treatment, including 380 children.

About two-thirds of them later died of AIDS-related illnesses. Some people unknowingly passed HIV to their partners.

Another 2,400 to 5,000 people developed hepatitis C, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

It’s hard to know the exact number of people infected with hepatitis C, because it can take decades for symptoms to appear.

Patients in the second group were given contaminated blood after childbirth, surgery or other medical treatment between 1970 and 1991.

Investigations estimated that 80 to 100 of these people were infected with HIV, and approximately 27,000 were infected with hepatitis C.

In all, about 2,900 people are believed to have been killed.

The Haemophilia Society believes up to 650 people infected with contaminated blood products, or their bereaved partners, have died since the investigation was announced in 2017.

Announcing its findings, the inquiry said victims had been let down “not once, but repeatedly”, and that the risk of viral infection in blood products had been known since 1948.

Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the inquiry, said there had been a lack of transparency by officials and elements of “outright fraud” had emerged, including the destruction of documents.

There were also incomplete reports, leaving people unaware of the risks involved in their treatment, availability of options, or even whether they were infected, he said.

“This disaster was no accident,” Sir Brian said. “Infections happened because those in power – doctors, the blood service and successive governments – did not prioritise patient safety.”

The report said, external,

The total cost of compensation is expected to reach billions of pounds.

The amount is being assessed based on five criteria – social impact from harm, stigma and isolation, impact on autonomy and private life, cost of care and financial loss.

The Labor government has said the first payments will be made to those who were infected. Family members and loved ones of those infected will also be entitled to compensation from next year.

Outlining a compensation scheme in May following a public inquiry, the then Conservative government set out the amounts people could expect to receive., external It says that these will be tax-free and there will be no impact on the benefits derived from them.

For example, a person infected with HIV could expect to receive compensation between £2.2 million and £2.6 million. These are average ranges rather than upper and lower limits.

Those with a chronic hepatitis C infection that lasts longer than six months can expect to receive between £665,000 and £810,000.

Examples of compensation awards for family members of infected people were also given.

For example, the spouse of someone with HIV who is still alive can expect to receive around £110,000, while a child could get £55,000.

If their loved one has died and they were financially dependent on them, annual payments will be available.

In cases where the person entitled to compensation has died, the money will go to their estate.

The Conservative government was criticised for waiting until the publication of the final report to announce compensation plans.

When then-prime minister Rishi Sunak told investigators in July 2023 that the government would act “as quickly as possible”, grieving families protested.

In late 2022, following advice from the inquiry, the Government made interim payments of £100,000 to each of around 4,000 surviving victims and some bereaved partners.

In the 1970s Britain struggled to meet demand for blood-clot treatments, so it had to import supplies from the US.

But most of the blood was purchased from high-risk donors, such as prison inmates and drug users.

Factor VIII was produced by collecting plasma from thousands of donors.

If just one contains the virus, the entire batch could become contaminated.

In the UK, blood donations were not routinely tested for hepatitis C until 1991, 18 months after the virus was first identified.

By the mid-1970s, there were repeated warnings that imported American Factor VIII posed a higher risk of infection.

However, attempts to make Britain more self-sufficient in blood products failed, so the NHS continued to use foreign supplies.

Campaigners say people with haemophilia could be given an alternative treatment called cryoprecipitate. This was more difficult to administer but was made from the blood plasma of a single donor, reducing the risk of infection.

BBC News has also uncovered evidence that children have been infected with hepatitis C and HIV during clinical trials of new treatments – often, without the consent of their families.

Until November 1983 the government maintained that there was no “conclusive evidence” that HIV could be transmitted through blood, a view strongly defended by former Health Minister Ken Clarke when he appeared before the inquiry.

Many other countries were also affected, although some – including Finland – used older treatments until much later rather than switching to Factor VIII, thereby minimising HIV transmission., external

Presenting the inquiry’s findings, Sir Brian criticised the UK Government’s claim in the 1990s that testing for hepatitis C began as soon as the technology became available.

He said 23 other countries, including Japan, Finland and Spain, had started this screening before Britain.

In the US, companies that supplied contaminated products have paid out millions in out-of-court settlements.

Politicians and pharmaceutical companies have been accused of negligence in several countries, including France and Japan.

In his evidence to the inquiry, former health secretary Andy Burnham suggested there could be grounds for corporate manslaughter charges, external In Britain.