During 2008–09 the Archer Report was released in the United Kingdom. It examines the use of contaminated blood products in the National Health Service during the 1970s and 1980s, which led to the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases. The report says the National Health Service purchased blood products such as Factor VIII from US suppliers that obtained blood from prison inmates and other high-risk groups. The report concludes that ‘Commercial priorities should never again override the interests of public health’ and suggests that ministers might apologise to survivors and their families and that the government should provide compensation payments and no-cost health care for survivors. The report does not propose that criminal charges be brought.
In Scotland Lord Penrose is chairing a public inquiry into the deaths in 2003 of two people who contracted hepatitis C and HIV through National Health Service blood products. At the inquiry’s opening session in March 2009, Lord Penrose said it would not be possible to find individuals or institutions legally liable, in either a criminal or a civil sense, although he noted it was possible his report would contain criticisms of ‘individuals, groups, agencies and institutions’.
A US judge has ruled that a claim by Taiwanese haemophiliacs may be heard in the United States. The claim concerns HIV-contaminated anti-haemophilia factor concentrate allegedly exported from the United States. Previously haemophiliacs in Argentina, Israel and the United Kingdom were not able to have their claims heard in the United States, but the judge ruled that the circumstances of the Taiwan cases differed sufficiently to justify continuing their suits.
These inquires provide a reminder of the need for intense discipline in the collection, manufacturing and distribution of blood and blood products. Australia was one of the first countries in the world to implement effective testing of blood donors for HIV (in 1985) and hepatitis C (in 1990), and is well served by the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s continuing oversight of the requirements for good manufacturing practice and licensing in the blood sector. The Senate Community Affairs Committee conducted an inquiry on ‘Hepatitis C and the Blood Supply in Australia’ in 2004.