UK PM Rishi Sunak Apologises After Infected Blood Scandal Cover-Up

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has apologised for the infection of around 30,000 people with contaminated blood products, and the failure to address the problem. Addressing the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Sunak apologised on behalf of successive governments and declared it was a day of national shame. Following the publication of the findings of Sir Brian Langstaff’s inquiry report, he also promised to pay comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected by the scandal. He said that a scheme in this regard will be shared today.  

 It is worth recalling that a damning 2,527-page inquiry concluded that the contaminated blood scandal in the UK which has caused more than 3,000 deaths, could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided. The report said that a catalogue of failures by successive governments and doctors caused the calamity, in which tens of thousands of patients with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders were infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses after receiving infected blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.