Family photoBy Jim ReedHealth reporterIt was February 2017 when the message arrived on Facebook. “There’s a much bigger scandal that you need to look into,” it read. “Thousands have died and still nobody talks about it.”That was the first time I heard from Su Gorman and Steve Dymond. I’d been working on a story about hepatitis C treatments. But they wanted me to go to Ramsgate, in Kent, to meet them about something else.A few days later, a heavy bundle of A4 papers arrived: handwritten notes, photocopies of old documents, press clippings from the Kent Messenger newspaper. I quickly learnt that Su was not someone you could easily argue with – or put off with an excuse. Train to Kent coastShe had met Steve at Exeter university in the mid-1970s, where they both studied Russian. They married on 25 October 1980, which was, Su was fond of pointing out, the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.Steve had been born with a mild form of the bleeding disorder haemophilia. He didn’t really need a new type of treatment, called Factor VIII, but he was given it anyway. We now know that whole batches of the blood product, made from pooled or mixed donations, often from the US, were contaminated with deadly viruses. Much of the blood had been donated by high-risk donors, such as prison inmates and drug users. If just one was carrying a virus, the entire batch could be contaminated.I read the bundle of documents and later took a train down to the Kent coast where Su and Steve lived in a small bungalow, not far from the seafront. It was the first of perhaps half a dozen trips over the next few years as I – and other journalists – continued to report on what would become a national scandal. Family photoSteve had first been told something might be wrong in 1983. His local hospital called and warned he may have been exposed to HIV, or HTLV-3 as the virus was then known. At the time, there was no quick test. The couple had to wait 18 long months until they were given the all-clear. “It was an absolutely terrifying period,” Su said to me, a time when the “fear and panic” around Aids was only just starting to emerge. Su and Steve put off having children, something they both deeply regretted later in life. Around 1,250 haemophiliacs were infected with HIV as part of the infected blood scandal. Two thirds lost their lives before modern antiretroviral drugs became available. But HIV was not the only virus hidden inside Factor VIII.By the late 1970s, the existence of hepatitis C was known by scientists – even though the virus itself wasn’t formally identified until 1989. Hep C affects people in different ways. Some who are infected fight off the virus straight away and have no further symptoms. In others, it can persist in the body for years – or even decades – before starting to damage the liver, causing cirrhosis and cancer.’Mr Grumpy’In 1994, Su and Steve were living and working in France and trying for a baby. When Steve was told he had Hep C, they were quickly taken off their IVF programme.”Within 24 hours we found out we would never have children and that he was going to die early,” said Su. They returned to England.Steve worked as a teacher, Su as a social worker. But Steve started to develop the symptoms of a chronic hepatitis C infection – he had difficulty concentrating and would suffer brain fog. “He would often be in a terrible mood and get angry for no reason,” said Su. “We called hepatitis C ‘Mr Grumpy’. It was the guest who came to stay.” For almost a …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnFamily photoBy Jim ReedHealth reporterIt was February 2017 when the message arrived on Facebook. “There’s a much bigger scandal that you need to look into,” it read. “Thousands have died and still nobody talks about it.”That was the first time I heard from Su Gorman and Steve Dymond. I’d been working on a story about hepatitis C treatments. But they wanted me to go to Ramsgate, in Kent, to meet them about something else.A few days later, a heavy bundle of A4 papers arrived: handwritten notes, photocopies of old documents, press clippings from the Kent Messenger newspaper. I quickly learnt that Su was not someone you could easily argue with – or put off with an excuse. Train to Kent coastShe had met Steve at Exeter university in the mid-1970s, where they both studied Russian. They married on 25 October 1980, which was, Su was fond of pointing out, the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.Steve had been born with a mild form of the bleeding disorder haemophilia. He didn’t really need a new type of treatment, called Factor VIII, but he was given it anyway. We now know that whole batches of the blood product, made from pooled or mixed donations, often from the US, were contaminated with deadly viruses. Much of the blood had been donated by high-risk donors, such as prison inmates and drug users. If just one was carrying a virus, the entire batch could be contaminated.I read the bundle of documents and later took a train down to the Kent coast where Su and Steve lived in a small bungalow, not far from the seafront. It was the first of perhaps half a dozen trips over the next few years as I – and other journalists – continued to report on what would become a national scandal. Family photoSteve had first been told something might be wrong in 1983. His local hospital called and warned he may have been exposed to HIV, or HTLV-3 as the virus was then known. At the time, there was no quick test. The couple had to wait 18 long months until they were given the all-clear. “It was an absolutely terrifying period,” Su said to me, a time when the “fear and panic” around Aids was only just starting to emerge. Su and Steve put off having children, something they both deeply regretted later in life. Around 1,250 haemophiliacs were infected with HIV as part of the infected blood scandal. Two thirds lost their lives before modern antiretroviral drugs became available. But HIV was not the only virus hidden inside Factor VIII.By the late 1970s, the existence of hepatitis C was known by scientists – even though the virus itself wasn’t formally identified until 1989. Hep C affects people in different ways. Some who are infected fight off the virus straight away and have no further symptoms. In others, it can persist in the body for years – or even decades – before starting to damage the liver, causing cirrhosis and cancer.’Mr Grumpy’In 1994, Su and Steve were living and working in France and trying for a baby. When Steve was told he had Hep C, they were quickly taken off their IVF programme.”Within 24 hours we found out we would never have children and that he was going to die early,” said Su. They returned to England.Steve worked as a teacher, Su as a social worker. But Steve started to develop the symptoms of a chronic hepatitis C infection – he had difficulty concentrating and would suffer brain fog. “He would often be in a terrible mood and get angry for no reason,” said Su. “We called hepatitis C ‘Mr Grumpy’. It was the guest who came to stay.” For almost a …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
