No individual blame in UK’s tainted blood scandal

LONDON - The first extensive report into Britain’s tainted blood scandal stopped short Monday of blaming individual doctors or companies for what is widely viewed as the National Health Service’s worst treatment disaster.

House of Lords member Peter Archer’s report called the scandal a “horrific human tragedy” but did not name any specific medical workers or pharmaceutical companies as being responsible for the deaths of around 2,000 hemophiliacs since the 1970s.

Archer’s commission did say U.S. companies that provided unsafe blood plasma products bore a heavy responsibility for infecting roughly 5,700 hemophiliacs with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, or hepatitis C.

“It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that commercial interests took precedence over public health concerns,” said Archer. “We have not gone out of our way to apportion blame. It is a bit late and perhaps a bit pointless to say who is to blame when it is too late to do much about it.”