HIV couple take case to high courts

A husband and wife who became infected with HIV as a result of contaminated blood are to take their case to the British courts.

The couple, Haydn and Gaynor Lewis, launched their claim on August 23rd in the High Court against the US pharmaceutical companies which supplied the blood, after being part of a litigation claim that has been running in US courts involving six other claimants.

The pair, who were diagnosed with the virus in 1985 after Mr Lewis, a haemophiliac, received contaminated blood, are hoping that the Department of Health will be involved in the trial as co-defendants.

"I would hope they would do the decent thing anyway," he told BBC Wales.

"They've been [saying] that they were sympathetic and open and transparent, so if they've got nothing to hide, maybe they should just provide the information to the legal process and speed the whole process up, hopefully.

"Now, patient records are not as complete as one would wish so we've still got this anomaly [of] which batch infected which recipient."