How British patients were infected with HIV from US prisoners who donated blood for a few dollars (2024)

Inmate describes how they had sex in the line to donate plasma and used bribed peers to let them go ahead even when they were high risk

Cara McGoogan

How British patients were infected with HIV from US prisoners who donated blood for a few dollars (1)

British patients were given a medical treatment infected with HIV and hepatitis that was made from plasma donated by US prisoners, an inquiry into the scandal has found.

Inmates in American prisons sold their plasma for medical treatments in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to HIV infections for some 1,250 people with haemophilia in the UK.

The treatment Factor VIII, which replaces the clotting protein that people with haemophilia require to stop bleeds, was made from thousands of plasma donations that were pooled together in the US.

Pharmaceutical companies paid for plasma from donors at high risk of blood-borne viruses including intravenous drug users, inmates and sex workers.

The Infected Blood Inquiry has concluded that the UK should never have licensed commercial Factor VIII made in the US in 1973 because of the known risk.

Sir Brian Langstaff, the chairman of the inquiry, said: “The UK was wrong to decide to license these products in 1973. Those products should not have been permitted to have been distributed in this country generally.”

In his final report, Sir Brian found doctors, politicians and pharmaceutical companies had known about the risk of hepatitis and HIV in Factor VIII but did not tell patients.

“There was evidence of a lack of safety,” the report said. “The risk was a serious one. Though safety is a balance, and not an absolute, there is no material now available which shows what it was that may have tipped the scales in favour of licensing. I have concluded that the decisions were wrong.”

Inmates in the US described having sex with one another before donating plasma, bribing their fellow inmates to let them donate even if they had recently had tattoos done in prison, and if they had tested positive for hepatitis C.

Richard Vincent, a prisoner at Louisiana State Penitentiary, testified in the US that he had been paid $15 to donate plasma twice a week.

“Inmates pricked your finger, inmates gave your blood pressure,” he said, in transcripts revealed in The Poison Line, a book documenting the scandal. “Inmates cleaned the thing on your arm where you was going to get stuck.”

He said prisoners had sex and used drugs in the line to donate.

“It wasn’t nothing to see people in the bathroom having sex before they go on the table to bleed,” said Vincent. “They’re having oral sex and anal sex, then five minutes later they’re on the table giving blood.”

The plasma centre at the Louisiana prison was nicknamed the “honeymoon suite”. Guards removed doors to try to stop the sex but it continued regardless.

Hepatitis C and HIV were rife within the prison.

The pharmaceutical companies then exacerbated the risk by pooling thousands of donations together.

“The price of having more factor concentrates which were from large pools and paid donors was the taking in of products manufactured in a way which significantly increased the risk to recipients that they would incur serious, and sometimes fatal, disease,” said Sir Brian’s report.

Blood was also collected from prisoners in the UK for transfusions which gave NHS patients hepatitis C.

“In 1975 the chief medical officer for England said the practice of collecting blood in prisons could continue even though prisoners were known to have higher numbers of hepatitis infections,” said Sir Brian. “And this practice was not ended in the UK until 1984; no real efforts were made to prevent those who had used intravenous drugs – and who were therefore a higher risk of hepatitis – from donating blood.”

In conclusion, Sir Brian said, “The blood used for transfusions and to make blood products in the UK was from British donors, who could and should have been better selected.”

Some 3,000 people have died in the infected blood scandal, which Sir Brian said was an avoidable disaster that should never have happened.

The Poison Line: Life and Death in the Infected Blood Scandal by Cara McGoogan is out now (Penguin).

Listen to Bed of Lies, a six-part Telegraph podcast laying bare the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.

Related Topics

  • Infected Blood Scandal,
  • NHS (National Health Service),
  • HIV
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How British patients were infected with HIV from US prisoners who donated blood for a few dollars (2024)

FAQs

Why can't British people donate blood? ›

Since 1999, the FDA had prohibited donations from these individuals out of fear they could transmit variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), commonly referred to as mad cow disease. But after extensive research and reassessment, the FDA determined the risk is now negligible.

What is the HIV blood scandal UK? ›

Nearly 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C from the imported blood from the US in 1970s-80s. The 2,527-page report says people were 'failed not once, but repeatedly'. In total, it's thought about 2,900 people have died.

What was the France HIV blood scandal? ›

In April 1991, the doctor and journalist Anne-Marie Casteret published an article in the French weekly magazine the L'Événement du jeudi showing that the Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine knowingly distributed blood products contaminated with HIV to haemophiliacs in 1984 and 1985, leading to an outbreak of HIV/ ...

Did people get HIV from blood transfusions? ›

Transfusion-transmitted cases of HIV infection are rare, but still might occur despite screening questionnaires for deferral of at-risk donations and improvements in laboratory testing for detecting HIV in blood products.

Why can you donate blood if you lived in the UK between 1980 and 1996? ›

There is no longer a deferral for travel, residence or transfusion in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France from 1980 to present, which was previously considered a geographic risk of possible exposure to vCJD.

Why can't you donate blood if you've been to Africa? ›

You can be exposed to malaria through travel and travel in some areas can sometimes defer donors. If you have traveled outside of the United States and Canada, your travel destinations will be reviewed at the time of donation. Come prepared to your donation process with your travel details when you donate.

What is the infected blood scandal in Scotland? ›

More than 30,000 people across the United Kingdom were infected by contaminated blood products and transfusions between 1970 and 1991 - with around 3,000 of those here in Scotland. These are not just numbers on a page. That is 3,000 families in Scotland who have faced decades of unnecessary heartbreak and pain.

What is the blood transfusion scandal in Ireland? ›

The Finlay inquiry in the mid 1990s looked at the rules that were broken by the then blood transfusion service in producing anti-D. The Lindsay tribunal set up in 2000 examined the contamination of Factor 8 products used by men with haemophilia which were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C.

Will families be compensated for the blood contaminated? ›

The Scheme will deliver financial compensation to victims of infected blood. The Scheme responds directly to and is in line with the recommendations made by the Infected Blood Inquiry in its second interim report, which considered the earlier study into compensation by Sir Robert Francis KC.

What was the infected blood scandal in 1991? ›

The infected blood scandal has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. More than 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C from 1970 to 1991 by contaminated blood products and transfusions.

What was the infected blood transfusion scandal? ›

What caused the infected blood scandal? During the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of patients in the UK contracted hepatitis C, HIV, or both, after being given contaminated blood products. People with haemophilia and those with similar conditions, were given infected blood products as part of their treatment.

Why can't you give blood after a transfusion in the UK? ›

Giving blood afterwards

Currently, you cannot give blood if you had a blood transfusion after 1 January 1980. This is a precautionary measure to reduce the risk of a serious condition called variant CJD (vCJD) being passed on by donors. Find out more about who can give blood on the NHS Blood and Transplant website.

Can English people now give blood? ›

29 February 2024: Changes to Donor Eligibility Criteria

If you lived in the United Kingdom, France or Republic of Ireland between 1980 and 1996 for six months or more, you can now book an appointment to donate blood or plasma and start your lifesaving journey.

What countries can you not donate blood after visiting? ›

Blood transfusions require at least a 3 month wait. Wait 4 weeks after an MMR or Varicella vaccination, 3 weeks for Smallpox. Donors must wait 3 months after travel (more than 24 hours) to countries with malaria-risk, like Afghanistan, Djibouti and Niger. Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Morocco do not require any wait time.

What are the reasons why a person Cannot donate blood? ›

Permanent Reasons People Can't Donate
  • Have ever had a positive test for HIV (AIDS virus)
  • Are a hemophiliac.
  • Had viral hepatitis B or hepatitis C.
  • Had certain forms of cancer (contact us regarding medical eligibility at 800.688. 0900)

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