Infected blood scandal: British medicine’s worst moment

Thirty thousand people in the UK were given infected blood products over two decades, resulting in 3000 deaths (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1179).1 The scandal has attracted descriptions to match: horrifying, an appalling medical tragedy, and the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1143).2 The six year Langstaff inquiry into the scandal is a 2500 page indictment of doctors, governments, blood services, and researchers. The intervention was overpromoted, including in children, and long term harms were disregarded. If anyone needs an argument for caution and evidence based practice then this is it.The balance of benefits and harms was spectacularly misjudged. The UK was slow to acknowledge the risks of a high risk intervention, slow to respond to the deep concerns of patients and carers, slow to organise a national inquiry, and slow to apologise to the people affected and compensate them. By contrast, the UK was quick to adopt an unproved…
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