A man infected with HIV and SLOT hepatitis C through blood products in the 1980s has told of his shock diagnosis as a teen.
Speaking anonymously to the Infected Blood Inquiry, he said he and others at a school for disabled children were "left to go and die".
More than 120 haemophiliac pupils were given infected blood at Treloar's College, Hampshire.
His south Wales valleys upbringing made it hard to talk to his parents about his condition, he said.
The infection of up to 30,000 people with contaminated blood, which killed thousands, has been called the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.
The public inquiry has been taking evidence since 2019 from people affected by the scandal.
The witness, who received treatment for his haemophilia, a blood condition which affects the clotting of blood, at the college, said he was about 15 when he was given the diagnosis.
At the time, he believed he would only have two to three years to live.
Now a grown man, he told the inquiry he felt the government may not have acted in the same way in the 1980s if the general population had been more widely affected than minority groups such as haemophiliacs and gay men.
He said there was no support for him, despite being infected as a child through a catastrophic error.