From Ann Wills

“Contaminated blood inquiry: The school where dozens of pupils died” BBC News 21.6.21 (slightly shortened) A public inquiry will this week hear from students & parents after more than 120 pupils at a school for disabled children were caught up in what’s been called the worst treatment disaster in NHS history. 

 From 1974 to 1987, those children were offered treatment for haemophilia at Treloar's College. At least 72 died after being given a medical drug contaminated with HIV & viral hepatitis. "We've lost so many friends from Treloar's & it's absolutely heartbreaking," said Richard Warwick, a pupil at the Hampshire school in 1970s, who was later diagnosed with HIV. On Monday the inquiry into the use of infected blood began taking evidence from people connected to the school. 

Former headmaster, Alec Macpherson, is one of those due to answer questions. "It caused those boys a lot of anxiety & a lot of upset," he told the BBC. · 

 Why the NHS gave thousands HIV-contaminated blood · The secret in my blood · Liz Hooper: The woman who lost two husbands to the scandal Lord Mayor's Treloar's College was a boarding school for physically disabled children with an NHS haemophilia centre on site, run by a medical team. By mid-1970s, a new treatment for haemophilia, known as factor VIII/IX, became available. Blood plasma used to make the drug was imported for the NHS from overseas, most notably USA. Batches were widely contaminated with hepatitis A, B, C & later HIV, infecting thousands of haemophiliacs across UK. 

 Ade Goodyear joined Treloar's in 1980 at the age of 10. Like dozens of other boys at the school, he was given factor VIII to help control his bleeding. He received treatment for haemophilia, along with his two older brothers. 

"With one of my very first shots, I got hepatitis & was placed in isolation for two weeks," he said. In 1985 he was taken into a small office with a group of boys to be told he had tested positive for HIV - then a newly discovered virus with no known treatment & a short life expectancy. "The doctor was upset & pointed at us & said, you have it, & you haven't. And I was back in science by 1.50pm. 

 I didn't even get the afternoon off," he said. Ade's two older brothers died after treatment with factor VIII - Jason from Aids in 1997 & Gary from health problems linked to hepatitis C in 2015. Just 32 of the 122 haemophiliacs who attended the school from 1974 to 1987 are still alive. Most died after contracting HIV or viral hepatitis. It's hoped the public inquiry will answer questions about what happened at Treloar's & the NHS haemophiliac centre run from the site. 

 Families want to know why they were not told about the potential risks of Factor VIII earlier & why it took many years until the drug was heat-treated to kill viruses & other contaminants.