The contaminated blood scandal has been called the worst treatment disaster in NHS history - and patients in the North East are still waiting for answers. Tens of thousands of people in the UK were infected with HIV and/or hepatitis through contaminated blood and blood products in the 1970s and early 1990s. Many had bleeding disorders, particularly people with haemophilia who had a shortage of clotting agent Factor VIII, while others were infected through receiving blood transfusions during childbirth, surgery or other medical events.
Many patients in the North East, including Dave Farry, from Ferryhill, whose dad John was affected by the infected blood, are still waiting for answers. John, who was previously fit and healthy, was diagnosed with a newly discovered deadly disease in 1984 after receiving Factor VIII blood supplement treatment for haemophilia on the NHS. It transpired the UK had been importing blood contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C from the United States - some from prisoners on death row - without screening it first.
Here is a timeline of key dates in the scandal, leading up to the Infected Blood Inquiry which was ordered by then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017. 1953 The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that dried plasma should be prepared from pools of between 10 to 20 donors to reduce the risk of contamination. 1975 Lord David Owen, while serving as a Labour health minister, pledges that the UK will become self-sufficient in blood products, with s.