THE POISON LINE

The shocking true story of the infected blood scandal the worst treatment disaster in NHS history which saw people infected with HIV by a revolutionary medical treatment and a cover up from governments and the multi billion dollar plasma industry The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal Jonathan Freedland author of The Escape Artist Books are routinely described as extraordinary but this one really is John Preston author of Fall Factor VIII was billed as a medical miracle when it was put on the market in the late 1960s a revolutionary treatment that meant people with haemophilia no longer feared a bleed might prove fatal But as the treatment was rolled out haemophiliacs began to contract hepatitis and AIDS in terrifying numbers Even as medical bodies and pharmaceutical companies tried to discredit whistleblowers and diminish the evidence it became abundantly clear that the miracle treatment was infected Factor VIII was killing the very people it promised to protect And government embarked on a cover up on an industrial scale Award winning investigative journalist Cara McGoogan follows the survivors turned campaigners the small town lawyers and the fearless journalists who took on some of the most powerful interests in