Police have been accused of spreading misinformation about HIV and hepatitis C to back their case for spit hoods.
The Police Federation is demanding that frontline officers be equipped with the hoods to guard against infection by detainees. Scotland Yard, which is running a three-month trial of the hoods, said that spitting posed “a significant health risk” to officers.
The Hepatitis C Trust and the National Aids Trust said, however, that police were making alarmist claims about the blood-borne viruses, which cannot be transmitted in saliva. The charities said that chief constables risked stigmatising sufferers and causing distress among their officers by allowing inaccurate information to go unchallenged. “It is quite clear that hepatitis C cannot be transmitted via spitting, and we cannot accept this