Read a summary of this week’s evidence

Written by Jessica Bomford, May 21, 2022

This week at the Infected Blood Inquiry there has been evidence about new variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) before moving on to hear from two politicians who worked in the Department of Health in the 1980s.

The week began with evidence from Professor James Ironside who is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Neuropathology at the University of Edinburgh and worked for many years at the National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit there.

Dr Nicky Connor is a consultant epidemiologist and was Head of the CJD Team from 2000 to 2012 for the Health Protection Agency. She gave evidence about her time on secondment to the Department of Health and of her role as part of the secretariat for the CJD Incidents Panel, which gave advice to health bodies about how to respond to CJD and prevent transmissions. Dr Connor’s evidence was followed by a presentation on the chronology of key events relevant to vCJD,

Former health minister and chief secretary to the Treasury, David Mellor, gave evidence about his attitude to compensation and his eventual involvement in the settlement of the HIV litigation case in 1991.

Finally, there was evidence from Lord John Patten, who was a junior health minister between 1983 and 1985.

Click here for a summary of this week’s evidence.

Transcripts of inquiry evidence are available here. A weekly summary of previous hearings can be found here.

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