Symptoms of AIDS were found in haemophilia patients in the Republic as early as 1983, it emerged at the tribunal yesterday.
Prof Ian Temperley, former director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, said he had been looking out for symptoms of HIV infection in patients from late 1983 and by the end of 1983 and certainly in 1984, he had found swollen lymph glands in patients, which were synonymous with the virus.
In earlier evidence, it was stated that HIV was not believed to be a problem among haemophiliacs in the State until November 1984, when a patient at St James's Hospital, Dublin, was diagnosed with AIDS.
Mr John Finlay SC, for the tribunal, asked Prof Temperley if there was any change in treatment decided in the light of these findings. Prof Temperley said there wasn't, adding that if somebody was already HIV positive there wasn't much point in taking them off imported blood products.
Mr Finlay asked if the discovery of these symptoms was alarming. "It was worrying and thought-provoking," Prof Temperley replied. However, there was no change in policy, he said.
"I think there was a certain sense in which we sincerely hoped this wasn't a problem. Maybe we were in fact hiding these problems which were worrying us, as it were, and I think that was probably true of most treaters throughout the world," he added.
He said the tendency was to take the optimistic view and hope HIV wouldn't be a problem. A letter written by Prof Temperley to the National Drugs Advisory Board (NDAB) on October 4th 1984 was opened by Mr Finlay. In it, he advised the board that he had a number of haemophilia patients with "clinical manifestations which could be regarded as AIDS-related conditions", but no known case of AIDS.
However, when the first Irish patient was diagnosed with AIDS he did not inform the NDAB. The board wrote to express disappointment that it had been informed of the infection by a third party. Prof Temperley conceded he should have told the NDAB as quickly as possible.
After this patient was diagnosed, he said efforts were made to test all haemophiliacs for HIV. Patients were "hauled in" for blood tests but he did not know if all were told why the tests were being carried out.
Blood samples had to be sent to Britain for testing and when the first batch of results came back in March 1985 they painted "a pretty dramatic and sad picture", Prof Temperley said.
Further evidence on the test results will be heard today.
