Over a thousand families who lost loved ones to hepatitis C contracted from contaminated NHS treatment are still fighting for their tragedy to be recognised.
In 2004 the Government announced the Skipton Fund, which made payments to people with hepatitis C who had contracted the virus through blood transfusions and treatment for haemophilia. However, the fund only paid out to those who died after 29th August 2003. Those who lost relatives prior to this date have received nothing.
Hepatitis C is a virus which attacks the liver, often leading to liver cancer or cirrhosis. It usually takes between twenty and thirty years to reach this end stage, but can progress much more quickly. Early symptoms include fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice, itching and flu-like symptoms.
1203 families who have lost relatives with haemophilia to hepatitis C have been excluded from the Skipton Fund payments because their loved ones died prior to August 2003. Many of these families have suffered from severe financial hardship as a result of the virus. Even worse, they feel that their loss has not been recognised. Their distress is compounded by the suspicion that these infections could have been avoided if they Government had acted on warnings about hepatitis C in the blood supply.
The UK Government has refused to hold an independent public inquiry into the contaminated blood disaster, which left 4670 people with haemophilia infected with HIV and hepatitis C. However, an Independent Public Inquiry, headed by former Solicitor General The Rt Hon Lord Archer of Sandwell QC, is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding this disaster and is expected to report in the coming months. A separate Judicial Inquiry has recently been announced in Scotland.
Bereaved relative, Harriet Bullock, who lost her husband, Ken, a chartered civil engineer, to hepatitis C in 1998 has said:
"I feel so angry that there is a small group of us who are excluded simply because our husbands died before the Government decided to create the fund. No one has ever said sorry. I can't yet begin to mourn Ken."
Lord Morris of Manchester, president of the Haemophilia Society, who initiated the Archer Public Inquiry after years of campaigning, has said: "It is a gross anomaly that widows of those infected with hepatitis C are excluded. It illustrates the piecemeal way this tragedy has been dealt with."
Haemophilia Society calls on Gordon Brown to acknowledge this year's World Hepatitis Awareness Day by publicly committing the Government to assisting Lord Archer by attending his Inquiry into contaminated blood and blood products. The Government must address any social injustice highlighted by Lord Archers report when it is published.
ENDS
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• For more information please see the Haemophilia Society website at www.haemophilia.org.uk
