The Poison Line

The full and shocking account of one of the biggest medical disasters in recent history ¿ and the lengths that big pharma, the NHS and governments worldwide took to cover it up`A devastating piece of reportage. 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. Rumours circulated in the press; a climate of fear took hold. How safe was Factor VIII?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. Before long, 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 the world to uncover what really happened in the infected blood scandal.________________'The Poison Line is the gripping tale of a terrible scandal' Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist`This is a vital account of the infected blood scandal and subsequent cover-up . . . The truth must be told¿ Andy Burnham'Cara McGoogan is an indefatigable detective and a born storyteller' Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars'The definitive account of one of modern medicine's most chilling scandals' Gerald Posner, author of PharmaBASED ON THE MULTI-AWARD-WINNING BED OF LIES PODCAST