It was not until 2017, under Theresa May, that an official inquiry into the scandal was set up, following years of campaigning by victims.
The inquiry, chaired by former judge Sir Brian Langstaff, will give its final recommendations on Monday, with the government expected to deliver an official response during the week.
Following advice from the inquiry, in 2022 the government made interim payments of £100,000 each to around 4,000 surviving victims and some bereaved partners.
In April last year, Sir Brian called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately, and recommended interim payments should be extended to some of children and parents of those who had died.
Campaigners have been calling for quicker compensation, with estimates that one victim dies every four days.
These include Steve Dymond, who died in 2018 from a hepatitis C infection acquired from a blood product. Alongside his wife Su, he was among hundreds of campaigners who had called for an inquiry to be set up.
According to BBC analysis, about 1,750 people in the UK are living with an undiagnosed hepatitis C infection after being given a transfusion with contaminated blood.
There has been a surge in demand for hepatitis C tests since the revelation, according to the Hepatitis C Trust charity.
One of those who was not diagnosed with the disease until much later was Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick, who died in 2007 of a brain haemorrhage linked to hepatitis C which she said she had acquired during a blood transfusion while giving birth to her daughter Sam in 1971.
Speaking to the BBC, Sam said she was part of a group that had been “hurt and damaged” by the scandal, but she hoped the publication of the inquiry’s final report would bring “some collective comfort” to victims’ families.
