Prof Ian Temperley admitted yesterday he should have stopped using BTSB-made factor 9 on his patients in 1985 when he realised Pelican House was refusing to heat-treat it to guard against HIV infection.
The former medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre said that in retrospect he should have told Dr Helena Daly, who was in charge of the centre while he was on sabbatical leave, to switch to heat-treated commercial concentrates in August 1985, pending the heat-treatment of local product.
Asked to consider the matter from his state of knowledge at the time, he replied it "would have been better" to have told the centre to stop using untreated product. However, "the arguments were not solid" on the issue.
He agreed that knowledge of the safety benefits of heat-treatment was well advanced by August. Yet untreated locally made factor 9 continued to be used in England and Wales until October, in contrast to Scotland, which stopped using untreated factor 9 at the end of 1984.
Asked why he did not follow the Scottish example, Prof Temperley said he did not have "that degree of confidence" in the issue to "close down" the usage of BTSB product. There was a lingering perception that untreated Irish product was somehow safer than imported heat-treated product, although he "felt the point was being carried to excess".
The BTSB began heat-treating its factor 9 in October 1985 but continued to supply untreated material until December.
Seven haemophiliacs - in three hospitals - were infected with HIV through untreated BTSB-made factor 9 administered after January 1st, 1985. Five of the seven have since died.
