A Positive Life: HIV from Terrence Higgins to Today

4. Infected Blood

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Episode notes

Sam Smith explores how more than a thousand haemophiliacs in the UK acquired HIV through their treatment - in what's come to be known as the contaminated blood scandal. At the same time that the queer community was fighting the devastation and stigma of HIV in the 1980s, another community was also being profoundly affected by the AIDS crisis. Through the 1970s and 80s, around a quarter of all haemophiliacs in the UK - more than 1200 people - acquired HIV through blood products given to them as treatment for their condition. Today, fewer than 250 of those people are still alive. Mark Ward was just a child when he was put on a new treatment, Factor VIII concentrate, to help manage his haemophilia - a rare bleeding disorder which stops a person's blood from clotting properly. In this episode, Mark tells us how he and his parents came to learn he had acquired HIV and hepatitis from this treatment. He shares personal insights from the long struggle for justice that he, and thousands of others like him, have faced to see accountability for this scandal. As we hear about the claims being investigated by the public inquiry into infected blood that's happening right now, we also learn how stigma was used to divide those impacted by the HIV epidemic in the 1980s - as haemophiliacs were labelled "innocent victims", and gay men were blamed for their infections. In "A Positive Life", singer Sam Smith presents stories of HIV in the UK over the last forty years. They hear from people who remember the earliest years of the AIDS crisis; the grassroots activists and marginalised communities who came together to fight stigma and raise public awareness; and a new generation living with effective treatments for HIV in a radically-changed world. An Overcoat Media production for BBC Sounds Producer: Arlie Adlington Assistant Producer: Emma Goswell Executive Producer: Steven Rajam Sound Mixing: Mike Woolley Additional sound design: Emma Barnaby Special thanks to Jim Reed