Canadian police launch inquiry into blood scandal

Police in Canada are opening an investigation into contaminated blood supplies, which left more than sixty-thousand Canadians with hepatitis or the HIV virus during the nineteen-eighties.

The police are studying the results of a public inquiry, to see if any individuals should face criminal charges.

The inquiry put much of the blame on the Canadian Red Cross, but police will also examine the role of pharmaceutical companies and the federal government.

About two-thousand people were infected with HIV -- which can lead to AIDS -- and more than sixty thousand with hepatitis C.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service