Infected blood compensation process created 'tier of victimhood'
A man, from Northern Ireland, who contracted hepatitis C has told the Infected Blood Inquiry the compensation process created a tier of victimhood which is "immoral, corrupt and unacceptable".
Nigel Hamilton, who is also chairman of Haemophilia NI, received contaminated blood products during an operation in the 1970s.
He gave evidence to the inquiry amid concerns around the government's compensation process for victims.
His twin brother Simon, who died on Christmas Day in 2023, also contracted Hepatitis C after being given contaminated transfusions.
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.
In August 2022, the government announced that 4,000 UK victims would receive interim payments of £100,000, including about 100 in Northern Ireland.
But campaigners and victims have since contacted the inquiry with concerns about the way compensation is being implemented, and how long the process is taking.
Mr Hamilton has received his compensation but wants to remain involved in the process to ensure that everyone gets justice.
'A process of delay'
Nigel Hamilton with his late brother Simon, who were both infected after receiving contaminated blood products [BBC]
Giving evidence, Mr Hamilton thanked the inquiry and its chair for the "opportunity to repeat that we need justice".
He was questioned by chief counsel to the Inquiry, Jenni Richards KC about the delay of compensation and its impact upon those in Northern Ireland.
Mr Hamilton said it was "not only in Northern Ireland" but that it impacted people "right across the board".
In addressing the inquiry's recommendations, he said "the outcome that has taken place is not how it was meant to be".
"The issue should be dealt with and should have been dealt with efficiency and in collaboration with victims.
"That's how it should have been.
"There's been a process of delay brought about by exclusion," he said.
'Really anxious'
He explained the "big anxiety that people feel" is the lack of direct consultation and that "victims don't know when they're going to be involved in this process".
"Their anxiety rises. Their fear and feeling of resentment and rejection rises," he said.
Mr Hamilton described the emotional, psychological, and financial impact of the process as "cruel, and the torture continues" and it needed properly addressed and resolved.
"My own personal feeling, while I have received compensation, is that it is critical that we widen the aperture of the funnel and get as many people in as possible to ensure that justice is done and that answers are given," he said.
Mr Hamilton concluded his evidence by telling the Inquiry that in his opinion, he said: "The simple issue here is the money was supposed to be provided. Put the money where the mouth is and get it done."
'Far too long'
Campaigners gathered in London in July 2023 [PA Media]
Earlier, Mr Hamilton told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the need to deliver compensation payments is "paramount".
"We've already lost a number of people. I've lost a twin brother, two cousins, several friends, one more recently, in the last few months and this is an injustice to them."
"It does not provide for them the opportunity to see closure and they have lost out in this process which has just simply taken far too long," he added.
'It's not over for me'
"People need the justice that they are entitled to. We have faced a long time in getting justice," he said.
The "reluctance" for the process to "move forward at pace" is "frustrating", he said.
"Justice is justice. It must be delivered – and it must be delivered now."
Mr Hamilton's compensation process took about five weeks and he said it was not straightforward, so he wants to ensure it progresses for others.
"My objective for staying in this process, rather than taking my money and running, is that I want to see justice for all other victims."
"I'm now in a situation where I am through this process – but it's not over for me – I want justice for everyone," Mr Hamilton said.
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News24
16 minutes ago
- News24
Graphs that paint the picture of HIV in SA: Part 3
Eight million people living with HIV. Just over 6 million on treatment. Behind these big numbers lurk a universe of fascinating epidemiological dynamics. In this special briefing, Spotlight editor Marcus Low unpacks what we know about the state of HIV in South Africa. This is part 3 of 3. In Part 1 of this Spotlight special briefing, we looked at some of the big picture dynamics of HIV in South Africa, and in Part 2, we considered some of the vulnerabilities of our HIV programme. Now, in Part 3, we zoom into some nuances relating to HIV prevention, the epidemic in different provinces, gender disparities, and HIV in kids – after which we conclude this special briefing with our take on where all this data suggests we should be focussing next in South Africa's HIV response. 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In the meantime, daily antiretroviral tablets that prevent HIV infection have already been rolled out in the public healthcare system over the last five or so years. The numbers here are tricky to parse since many people start taking the pills and then stop. For example, while 501 000 women started taking the pills from mid-2023 to mid-2024, less than half that number were still taking the tablets in mid-2024 – keep this in mind when considering the above graph. Even so, there has clearly been a dramatic increase in women using HIV prevention pills in recent years. How provinces compare In South Africa, the health system, and most of the HIV programme for that matter, is run by provincial health departments. Apart from demographics differing massively between the country's nine provinces, the capabilities of their health departments also varies. It is thus no surprise that the HIV numbers look very different in different provinces. 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Of course, for those people who are ill or struggling, there must be the option of much more regular visits. But for those who are stable on treatment and doing well, we should at most be asking them to visit the clinic once a year and pick up medicines somewhere convenient every six months. ALSO READ | Are children living with HIV being left behind? What the stats tell us South Africa has made tremendous progress against HIV. Yet, as we have shown in this Spotlight special briefing, there are gaps, most notably the fact that one in five people living with the virus are not on treatment. Getting that fifth person on to treatment, might require us doing things differently than before. Quite simply, we need to make it easier and more convenient for people to start and stay on treatment. We have already made several of the right moves. Condom distribution has mostly been a success, it is easy to get an HIV test, allowing nurses to get people started on treatment without the involvement of doctors has worked well, and giving people the option of collecting their ARVs at pick-up points such as private pharmacies has made many people's lives easier. ALSO READ | Francois Venter: Our HIV programme is collapsing and government is nowhere to be seen Though it's come a long way, the medicines distribution system still falls short of providing everyone with a convenient option for collecting their medicines near their home or workplace. Too often people still get only enough tablets for a month or two at a time. For those not keen on visiting clinics, getting an ARV prescription straight from a pharmacy is unfortunately not yet an option. Many people still feel disrespected by the health system meant to support them. Over the last two decades, we have rightfully been somewhat fixated with numbers like treatment coverage. One might argue that to scale up treatment as quickly as we did, we couldn't afford for care to be as personalised as we'd like. But with the world's largest treatment programme in place and a mature epidemic, the context has changed. It is clear where the remaining gaps are – closing those gaps will require that government gets serious about making the health system much, much more friendly to those it is meant to support. *You can find the complete version of this #InTheSpotlight special briefing as a single page on the Spotlight website. Note: All of the above graphs are based on outputs from version 4.8 of the Thembisa model published in March 2025. We thank the Thembisa team for sharing their outputs so freely. Graphs were produced by Spotlight using the R package ggplot2. You are free to reuse and republish the graphs. For ease of use, you can download them as a Microsoft PowerPoint slide deck. Technical note: The Thembisa model outputs include both stock and flow variables. This is why we have at some places written 2024 (for stock variables) and 2023/2024 (for flow variables). 2024 should be read as mid-2024. 2023/2024 should be read as the period from mid-2023 to mid-2024. Reviewed by Dr Leigh Johnson. Spotlight takes sole responsibility for any errors. Show Comments ()
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
India brought forward its TB elimination deadline - but can it be met?
Atul Kumar (name changed) anxiously paced the corridor of a public hospital in India's capital Delhi. A small-appliance mechanic, he was struggling to secure medicines for his 26-year-old daughter who suffers from drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Mr Kumar said his daughter needed 22 tablets of Monopas, an antibiotic used for treating TB, every day. "In the past 18 months, I haven't received government-supplied medicine for even two full months," he told BBC Hindi in January, months before India's declared deadline to eliminate the infectious disease. Forced to buy costly drugs from private pharmacies, Mr Kumar was drowning in debt. A week's supply cost 1,400 rupees ($16; £12), more than half his weekly income. After the BBC raised the issue, authorities supplied the medicines Mr Kumar's daughter needed. Federal Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said that the government usually acts quickly to fix medicine access issues when alerted. 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In Odisha's Khordha district, around 30km (18.6 miles) from state capital Bhubaneshwar, 32-year-old day-labourer Kanhucharan Sahu is struggling to continue his two-year-old daughter's TB treatment, with government medicines unavailable for three months and private ones costing 1,500 rupees a month - an unbearable burden. "We can't see her suffer anymore," he says, his voice breaking. "We even thought of abandoning her." At Odisha's local TB office, officials promised to review Sahu's case, but a staffer admitted, "We rarely get the medicines we need, so we ration them." Mr Sahu says he hasn't received the promised 1,000 rupees monthly support from the federal government and at the local TB office, officials admit to chronic shortages, leaving families like his adrift in a failing system. Vijayalakshmi Routray, who runs the patient support group Sahyog, says medicine shortages are now routine, with government outlets often running dry. "How can we talk about ending TB with such gaps?" she asks. There are other hurdles too - for example, changing treatment centres involves navigating complex bureaucracy, a barrier that often leads to missed doses and incomplete care. This poses a major hurdle for India's vast population of migrant workers. At a hospital near Khordha, 50-year-old Babu Nayak, a sweeper who was diagnosed with TB in 2023, struggles to continue his treatment. He was regularly forced to travel 100km to his village for medicines as officials insisted he collect them from the original centre where he was diagnosed and first treated. "It became too difficult," he says. Unable to travel so often, Mr Nayak stopped taking the medication altogether. "It was a mistake," he admitted, after contracting TB again last year and being hospitalised. At his hospital, no TB specialist was available, highlighting another critical gap in India's fight: a shortage of frontline health workers. The BBC shared its findings with the federal health ministry and officials in charge of the TB programme in Delhi and Odisha. There was no response despite repeated reminders. A 2023 parliamentary report showed there were many vacant roles across all levels of the TB programme, affecting diagnosis, treatment and follow-up - especially in rural and underserved areas. Can vaccines help India triumph over tuberculosis? In 2018, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought forward India's TB elimination target to 2025, he cited the government's intensified efforts as a reason for optimism. Two years later, the Covid pandemic disrupted TB elimination efforts globally, delaying diagnosis, diverting resources and pausing routine services. Medicine shortages, staff constraints and weakened patient monitoring have further widened the gap between ambition and reality. Despite these challenges, India has made some progress. Over the past decade, the country has reduced its tuberculosis-related mortality. Between 2015 and 2023, TB deaths declined from 28 to 22 per 100,000 people. This figure, however, is still high when compared with the global average which stands at 15.5. The number of reported cases has gone up, which the government credits to its targeted outreach and screening programmes. In 2024, India recorded 2.6 million TB cases, up from 2.5 million in 2023. Federal Health Minister JP Nadda recently touted innovations like handheld X-ray devices as game-changers in expanding testing. But on the ground, the picture is less optimistic. "I still see some patients come to me with reports of sputum (phlegm) smear microscopy for TB, a test which has a much lower detection rate as compared to genetic tests," says Dr Lancelot Pinto, a Mumbai-based epidemiologist. Genetic tests, which includes RT-PCR machines - widely used to diagnose HIV, influenza and most recently, Covid-19 - and Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing, also examine the sputum sample but with greater sensitivity and in a shorter timeframe. Besides, the tests can reveal whether the TB strain is drug-resistant or sensitive, something that microscopic testing can't do, Dr Pinto says. The gap, he adds, stems not just from lack of awareness but from limited access to modern tests. "Genetic testing is free at government hospitals but not uniformly available, with only a few states being able to provide it." In May, Modi led a high-level review of India's TB elimination programme, reaffirming the country's commitment to defeating the disease. But the official statement notably skipped mention of the 2025 deadline. Instead, it highlighted community-driven strategies - better sanitation, nutrition and social support for TB-affected families - as key to the fight. The government has also prioritised better diagnosis, treatment and prevention at the core of its elimination strategy. This approach mirrors the WHO's view of TB as a "disease of poverty". In its 2024 report, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it "the definitive disease of deprivation", noting how poverty, malnutrition and treatment costs trap patients in a vicious cycle. As India pushes toward its goal of eliminating the disease, deep health and social inequalities remain hurdles. With just six months left until India's self-imposed deadline, new complications have emerged. The fallout from US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the WHO and suspension of USAID operations has raised concerns about future funding for global TB efforts. Since 1998, USAID has invested more than $140m to help diagnose and treat TB patients in India. However, India's federal health secretary insists there is "no budgetary problem" anticipated. Meanwhile, hope lies on the horizon. Sixteen TB vaccine candidates are currently in development across the world, with the WHO projecting potential availability within five years, pending successful trials.


Hamilton Spectator
15 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Doctors, health experts call on N.S. to cover birth control and HIV-prevention drug
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia physicians and other sexual health experts are calling on the provincial government to fund birth control and increase access to a medication used to prevent HIV. Four doctors, the head of the Halifax Sexual Health Centre, and a pharmacy professor made the comments today at a legislature committee hearing in Halifax. Abbey Ferguson with the Halifax Sexual Health Centre says PrEP — an antiviral medication that prevents HIV transmission — is so expensive that many people who would benefit from the drug are not able to take it. The drug is estimated to cost between $200 and $250 per month. Dr. Melissa Brooks, the medical co-director of the Reproductive Options and Services Clinic, says the province's pharmacare plan is so restrictive that it often doesn't help those who cannot afford their preferred birth control option. Kari Ellen Graham, with Access Now Nova Scotia, urged the provincial government to sign on to the federal government's pharmacare program, which helps fund birth control. So far only P.E.I., Manitoba, British Columbia, and the Yukon have signed up to the federal pharmacare program. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .