§ Lord Morris of Manchesterasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answer by the Baroness Hayman on 24 May (H.L. Deb., cols. 631–632), where it was officially stated that the social stigma of HIV, and the danger of infecting partners, were important considerations in the grant by the then government of special payments to National Health Service patients infected with HIV during treatment. [HL2723]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hayman)My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health gave the view of this Government when he wrote to the Haemophilia Society on 28 July 1998. He said, with regard to the decision not to introduce a special payment scheme for people with haemophilia infected with hepatitis C through National Health Service treatment, that the circumstances of the people infected with HIV were different. He added that the stigma surrounding HIV at the time the decision was taken, the fact that it was generally considered a sexually transmitted disease and that haemophiliacs could have inadvertently infected their partners were all important considerations which do not apply to hepatitis C.