...comes from Mark Graves of the Terrance Higgins Trust following Lord Owen's claims that the number of haemophiliacs who were infected with the HIV virus could have been reduced if the government had acted differently.

"Sadly, most of those people who were infected are now dead. It was an exceptionally tragic part of our recent medical history. In the 1970s and 1980s things were very different and people didn't know what they know now. The controls that are in place now weren't then. Fortunately there was only a limited number of people infected and the general public now has a greater understanding of HIV."