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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/26/contaminated-blood-scandal-victims-win-ruling-to-launch-high-court-action

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Contaminated blood scandal victims win ruling to launch high court action Contaminated blood scandal victims allowed to sue government for compensation
(35 minutes later)
Victims and their families have won a ruling allowing them to launch a high court group action seeking damages over contaminated blood products. About 500 victims and relatives of haemophiliac patients killed by contaminated blood products have been given permission to sue the government for compensation.
A high court official said it was “appropriate” to immediately issue a group litigation order allowing a potential 500 claimants – surviving victims of contamination and the families of the deceased – to join together to claim compensation. A high court judge at a preliminary hearing dismissed attempts by lawyers for the Department of Health to delay the claim and granted a group litigation order to begin legal proceedings.
The official, Senior Master Fontaine, made the order despite opposition from lawyers acting for the Department of Health who argued the application was “premature”. More than 2,400 people are estimated to have died after receiving imported blood-clotting products derived from blood plasma manufactured in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. The products were infected with hepatitis C and HIV.
The case concerns imported blood-clotting products derived from blood plasma which caused haemophiliacs and others to be infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 80s and has so far led to the deaths of at least 2,400 NHS patients.
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