Victims of a decades-long contaminated blood scandal that has killed about 3,000 people in Britain will start receiving final compensation payments this week, the government said on Thursday.
More than 30,000 people, including children, were infected with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis after being given the tainted blood between the 1970s and early 1990s.
Ten people have been offered compensation totalling over £13 million ($16.5 million) and are “due to receive payment in the coming days”, the government said Thursday.
Another 25 people have recently been invited to make their claim and will also receive offers, with the government setting aside £11.8 billion in total to compensate victims.
“This government promised to deliver action on infected blood compensation, and today is a vital step towards delivering justice for people who have waited far too long for compensation,” said minister Nick Thomas-Symonds.
“After so many years of injustice, I hope that this brings some reassurance to a community who have suffered immeasurably that action is being taken.”
A bombshell report released in May found the tainted blood affair was covered up by successive governments and health officials, and largely could have been avoided.
Then prime minister Rishi Sunak issued a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology and promised compensation for everyone affected. His government estimated that someone infected with HIV could receive up to £2.6 million.
Friends, family members and carers of those infected will also be eligible for compensation.
People are still dying from what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the eight-decade history of the state-run National Health Service (NHS).
Victims include those needing blood transfusions for accidents and in surgery, and those suffering from blood disorders such as haemophilia who were treated with donated blood plasma products.
Health officials allowed the import of blood products from abroad, despite knowing it could include blood from high-risk donors such as prisoners and drug addicts.
Central to the scandal was the treatment of haemophiliacs using a specific type of factor concentrate (clotting factor proteins obtained from donor plasma) called Factor VIII.
Factor VIII was created by pooling blood plasma from thousands of donors, but health officials failed to take into account that just one contaminated sample could infect an entire batch.
Judge Brian Langstaff’s report found a “catalogue of failures” with “catastrophic” consequences for victims and their loved ones.
