Hampshire school clinic aware of infected blood risk to boys

NHS clinicians treated boarding school pupils for a blood disorder despite being "well aware" of the risk of infecting them with HIV, the Infected Blood Inquiry has found.

Boys at Lord Mayor Treloar College in Hampshire were used as "objects for research", the inquiry concluded.

Only 30 of 122 pupils with haemophilia at the school in the 1970s and 80s were still alive, its final report added.

The college said it was "devastated" that former pupils were affected.

The inquiry heard testimony from survivors in a week of special hearings about the school.

"I often just think, why me? Why am I still here?" said Richard Warwick, a former pupil who was infected with HIV as a young boy in 1978.

"It's just the guilt of losing all those friends. I can name 10 that I know who are just gone. It's horrific."

The state school's on-site NHS centre treated children for haemophilia using plasma blood products infected with HIV and hepatitis.

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Longstaff found that a commercial clotting agent - factor concentrate - was used on the pupils "unnecessarily".

Despite knowledge of the dangers, clinicians proceeded with higher-risk treatments in attempts to further their medical research, he said.

He said that from 1977, research was carried out at the college - since renamed Treloar's - "to an extent which appears unparalleled elsewhere".

Sir Brian said: "The pupils were often regarded as objects for research, rather than first and foremost as children whose treatment should be firmly focused on their individual best interests alone. This was unethical and wrong."

He said there was "no doubt" that healthcare professionals at Treloar's were aware of the risks of virus transmission through blood and blood products.

He wrote: "Not only was it a prerequisite for research, a fundamental aspect of Treloar's, but knowledge of the risks is displayed in what the clinicians there wrote at the time.

"Practice at Treloar's shows that the clinical staff were well aware that their heavy use of commercial concentrate risked causing Aids."

The report also said parents and children at Treloar's were given little information about their care and the related risks.

Campaigners have begun a civil legal case against the college.

In a statement, the college said: "The Inquiry's report shows the full extent of this horrifying national scandal.

"We are devastated that some of our former pupils were so tragically affected and hope that the findings provide some solace for them and their families.

"The report lays bare the systemic failure at the heart of the scandal."

The college said it would reflect on the report's recommendations, including a call for a memorial to those affected.

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