There are those who wait for that money like they wait for oxygen. There are those who wait for it to survive, because everything else - protection, assistance, answers - has been missing.
And now the last thing that was left is missing: the life pension provided by Law 210 of 1992, for those who have contracted very serious diseases after transfusions with infected blood. An open wound in the history of Italian healthcare, which has started bleeding again today due to unacceptable bureaucratic delays.
Corrado Giannotte can no longer keep quiet. He is one of the 23 beneficiaries connected to the ASL 8 of Cagliari who, as of today, May 2, 2025, has not yet received what he is entitled to for the first two months of the year. "The life annuity - he says bitterly - should have been paid by March. It's May and we haven't seen a single euro. There are people who live only with that money, and this institutional silence is a disgrace."
In support of his words there are emails, official requests, reminders that have remained unanswered. Among these, also a communication from Dr. Stefano Piras of the General Directorate of Health, who has repeatedly asked for urgent intervention. "But nothing. No resolution, no explanation. Only waiting and disinterest."
The story is not new. Giannotte retraces the ordeal with surgical precision. "Last year the resolution arrived on April 10, late. This year they outdid themselves: it was signed in late April, well after the natural deadline. It is the demonstration of an administrative machine that does not work and does not respect the most fragile."
The life annuity, we recall, is provided for by Law 210/92 for those who, following blood transfusions or mandatory vaccinations, have contracted seriously disabling pathologies such as hepatitis or HIV .
It is the direct result of one of the darkest pages of Italian healthcare: the infected blood scandal. In the 1970s and 1980s, in an Italy without systematic controls, thousands of patients – hemophiliacs, thalassemics, multiple transfusion recipients – were infected due to untested blood. Subsequently, Italian and international courts condemned the State and some multinational pharmaceutical companies for negligence, paving the way for compensation. But since then, the path has been all uphill: bureaucracy, delays, inadequacies.
"Since my return to Cagliari, 11 years ago - Giannotte reports - only one other year had seen delays. But never like this. Today they have broken every record".
His appeal is heartfelt and public: "President Todde, Councilor Bartolazzi, we ask you to intervene. Because here we are not talking about favors, but about rights. There are people who died for that blood. At least those who are still alive have the dignity to be heard."
