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The investigation into the scandal of tainted blood in the NHS, which reportedly killed more than 2,000 people since the 1970s, has opened in London with the commemoration of its victims.
The tainted blood survey will examine how so many people with hemophilia and other conditions have received blood plasma from the United States and carrying HIV and hepatitis C. Some products were made from blood donated by prisoners and drug addicts.
For decades, many families have not spoken openly about these deaths because they felt that public sympathy for AIDS victims was limited. Some disguised the reasons for the deaths.
Theresa May announced the survey in July 2017 but her opening session only starts on Monday.
The commemoration began with a video sequence of photos of the victims and their families accompanied by Emeli Sandé's song Read All About It (Part III) which contains the lines: "You have spent a life stuck in silence … the papers, I'm not afraid / They can read everything, read everything
In a statement read at Church House's Westminster inquiry, the audience learned that nearly 3,000 people had died and their numbers were increasing. Half of the infected hemophiliacs are now dead. According to the statement, young women who want to live with their family have been unknowingly infected by their husbands.
Medical records disappeared and government documents were destroyed, people gathered for the investigation were informed. Financial support to enable people to suffer to live in dignity has been denied, it was said.
A series of anonymous victims then recounted in brief statements how they and their loved ones had contracted HIV, hepatitis C and other potentially fatal viruses by blood and plasma transfusion, mainly in the 70s and 80s. .
One woman said, "Every time I close my eyes, I look at a casket. I was sure that I was going to die. Another victim said, "It destroyed my marriage. This had a serious impact on my career. One man said, "I was told that I had two or three years to live:" Go and do your will. "Every day, I have to take a poisonous combination just to stay alive. I lost my job, I nearly lost my wife and we had to live on the end of the line. "
The first evidence sessions are expected to begin after Easter 2019. Prior to Monday's hearing, the chairman of the investigation, Sir Brian Langstaff, a former high court judge, said, "Many people infected and their families campaigned for the survey. for many years. They helped to define the mandate of the survey. It is now the opportunity to tell me where they want the survey to focus its investigative powers.
"The survey has already received more than 100,000 documents and plans to acquire this number several times. There will also be hundreds of witness statements. I am grateful for each contribution. However, there must still be more people who have knowledge, documents and their own accounts to add. I know that overcoming the past can be difficult but I encourage them to come forward. "
Collins Collins, partner of the Collins Solicitors law firm, representing more than 800 family members and survivors, said, "Once hearings begin and key participants begin to testify, a long process of understanding how and why why they received infected NHS treatment, the details of the extended coverage that followed and what the government proposes to do about it.
"For those affected, their families and campaign groups, is there a day when they think – and a testimony from those who campaigned so hard to make it a reality. The feeling among our many customers is that they felt that the government had washed their hands, but now officials – both in government and pharmaceutical companies – will be held responsible. For many people affected or in mourning, those who died as a result of contaminated blood treatments, this is extremely important. "
The law firm Leigh Day represents more than 240 people who have been affected by tainted blood, both by blood during a routine transfusion following an accident, by complications during the treatment. Childbirth, routine dental treatment, and hemophilia received infected blood products. .
The Ministry of Health has already said that 30,000 people may have been exposed to blood infections.
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