Thousands of Brits are known to have been killed or have suffered due to the infected blood scandal, labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
But hundreds more, mostly women, are thought to unknowingly be living with the consequences of the scandal to this day.
Some infected with hepatitis C as a result of receiving tainted blood have only learnt they were infected after the virus has ravaged their livers, leaving them with life-limited damage.
Charities have warned they are, on average, helping two people each month who have only just learned they were infected decades ago.
Back in the 70s, 80s thousands of men, women and children were given blood products that, unbeknownst to them, were contaminated with HIV or and/or hepatitis C.
Demonstrators pictured holding placards in London in July 2023 when PM Rishi Sunak was questioned by Infected Blood Inquiry
These tainted donations came from US prisoners, sex workers and drug addicts, who were paid to give their blood to the manufacturers of the product.
Around 30,000 patients in Britain are known to have been given unsafe blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, potentially exposing them to hepatitis C and HIV.
Some 3,000 are thought to have since died as a result, though the true toll could be higher.
Patients offered the products often had haemophilia or other bleeding disorders that meant they needed regular transfusions.
Others received them during surgery, either for routine planned operations or emergency procedures as well as well as childbirth.
Victims have faced years of dismissal from ministers and the NHS over their symptoms, as well as stigma from their communities for having HIV.
Adding to the scandal was a lack of follow-up care in tracking people who had been infected.
Survivors and families of those killed having been involved in a 40-year fight for compensation and an apology from Government over the way they were treated.
But a further 1,750 people, mostly women, are thought to still be unknowingly living with hepatitis C after being infected with contaminated blood products decades prior.
This figure was obtained by a BBC investigation, examining documents submitted to the official Infected Blood Inquiry.
Other estimates of the unknown figure are higher, with some charities saying ‘thousands’ may have been infected this way.
There are also cases where women passed hepatitis C onto their children while they were developing in the womb.
Approximately 64 per cent, the majority of victims, are thought to be women, in line with known figures on which patients received tainted blood products.
One of the most damning aspects of the scandal is the overall failure on the part of Government and the NHS to attempt to track those potentially infected for years.
Efforts to track patients only really started in 1995. This was later than other countries similarly affected by the contaminated products.
In addition to starting later, the UK effort was piecemeal. It wasn’t nationally led, and instead, was mostly left to up to individual NHS organisations to track potentially infected patients.
This led to a postcode lottery in terms telling patients they had not only been infected but offering them testing and treatment.
The end result is that some patients have endured years of hepatitis C problems without explanation and are only learning they have the disease now.
Charity, The Hep C Trust which is dedicated to eliminating hepatitis C in the UK by 2030, says that, on average, about two people a month call its helpline after receiving a diagnosis resulting from a blood transfusion 30 years ago.
Tragically, this is often in circumstances where a patient has suffered severe damage to their liver from the infection.
Vanessa Hebditch, director of communications and policy at another charity, The British liver Trust, said people infected this way, like many victims of the infected blood scandal, deserve better.
‘The people affected by this tragedy deserve not only to know the truth about exactly what happened and the degree of negligence that occurred but also to be adequately compensated,’ she said.
Hepatitis C is a virus that can infect the liver causing potentially life-limited damage to the organ.
People are primarily infected with hepatitis C via exposure to contaminated blood.
This typically occurs through sharing needles in drug use, as well as improperly cleaned equipment in surgery and tattoo parlours.
However, blood transfusions are another, but now rare thanks to screening, way of becoming infected.
There is also a smaller risk of contracting hepatitis C through sexual contact.
If left hepatitis C untreated, it can cause serious and potentially life-threatening damage to the liver over many years.
Only about one in every three of four patients exhibits any early signs of a hepatitis C infection in the weeks of being infected.
These symptoms include a high temperature, fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach pain as well as nausea and vomiting.
However, the majority of patients don’t exhibit these symptoms and problems only develop many years after infection.
Symptoms of long-term hepatitis C vary widely, but include chronic fatigue, joint and muscle pain, nausea, brain fog, mood swings and depression, indigestion or bloating, itchy skin and abdominal pain.
Untreated long term hepatitis C infection also frequent causes cirrhosis, a serious scarring of the liver.
Signs of cirrhosis can include jaundice, vomiting blood, dark poo, and a build-up of fluid in the legs or abdomen.
Part of the tragedy in people unknowingly being infected is that hepatitis C is now easily treatable through tablets that are taken for eight to 12 weeks.
Getting a diagnosis has often been challenging for patients, particularly women, infected by a blood product or transfusion.
Female victims have shared stories of having their hepatitis C symptoms dismissed by doctors as stress or blamed on another issue like the menopause.
NHS advice states that people who received a blood transfusion or blood product prior to September 1991 have a small chance of having been infected with hepatitis C.
After this date the risk from blood products and transfusion is considered extremely low as this was when the NHS started checking donations for the hepatitis C virus.
In practice, most patients only learn they may have been a victim after finally being tested for hepatitis C.
This is often done after the symptoms, and the damage, triggered by the disease become impossible for medics to dismiss.
An analysis of a patient’s medical records can then uncover the possibility they were infected by a contaminated blood product or transfusion.
People who think they may have hepatitis C in England and Wales can order a free NHS testing kit for the virus that arrives through the post.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland people can access these tests through their GP.
