Government rejects hepatitis compensation pleas

The government has rejected renewed calls to award compensation to nearly 5,000 people with haemophilia infected with hepatitis C from contaminated NHS blood products.Lord Filkin, government health spokesman in the Lords, also rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the infection of people with haemophilia with HIV and hepatitis C.But Haemophilia Society president Lord Morris wanted to focus attention on the 'burning sense of injustice felt by a small and grievously stricken community'.He said 95 per cent of people with haemophilia treated before 1985 - 4,800 people - were infected with hepatitis C by blood products.