Today: Tuesday, 10 September 2024 year

Sunak declared a “day of shame” in Britain due to the scandal.

Sunak declared a “day of shame” in Britain due to the scandal.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized to the people of the country for the history of infecting a large number of patients with HIV and the hepatitis C virus through blood transfusions; his speech was published on the government website.

“This is a day of shame for Britain. <…> I want to offer a sincere and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice,” he said in a speech in the House of Commons.

In Britain, a report was published on the results of an investigation into patients becoming infected with hepatitis and HIV from donor blood in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the victims had hemophilia, for the treatment of which the drug clotting factor VIII was used.  The drug administered was produced in the United States, but drug users and prisoners often became donors for it, the material says. At the same time, donated blood was not tested for HIV and hepatitis C, which led to infection of 30 thousand people, three thousand of whom died, the publication noted.