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In 2001, Eye 1025 reported that in return for "sympathy payments" of between £20,000 and £60,000 they were obliged to sign a "waiver" saying they would not sue for hepatitis. That same year, the government settled, without admission of liability, a £34m civil action brought by HIV victims. The inquiry also heard of another delay before remedial action was taken: the then advisory committee on the virological safety of blood took more than a year before it finally approved screening for hep C in September 1991. Sir Brian has asked for a search for any evidence at the time to suggest the test was so imprecise that more contaminated blood would have got through than would have been screened out had it been promptly introduced. Sir Brian Langstaff, who leads the inquiry, could barely conceal his incredulity, asking Dr Rejman to confirm what officials were really saying: that not only would so many symptomless people donate blood merely to find out their HIV status, but also that if they did do so, the screening test would not be effective enough to screen out more cases than it was letting through. Around 3,000 have since died, others sentenced to chronic ill health and financial hardship. More than 1,200 people with haemophilia were infected with HIV from a pooled blood product, factor 8, and around 4,700 with hepatitis C during what was the NHS's biggest health disaster of the 1970s and 80s.
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The evidence came from Dr Andrzej Rejman, a senior government medical officer from 1989-97, who was a key player in preparing the Department of Health's (DoH) defence to lawsuits brought by those sentenced to death or serious ill health from tainted blood products. Last week the inquiry, about to enter its fifth year, heard extraordinary evidence that the main reason for a year-long delay in introducing HIV screening, available from mid-1984, was because officials believed those they considered at high risk – at the time intravenous drug users and gay men – might donate blood simply in order to find out their infection status. THERE were lengthy and fatal delays in introducing screening tests for both HIV and hepatitis C, despite the known infection risks from contaminated blood products, the inquiry into the infected blood scandal has been told.