Drug side-effects rather than the HIV virus may be the main cause of illness and death among Irish haemophiliacs diagnosed HIV-positive. This is the claim made in a submission to the Lindsay tribunal by the Aidsmyth group, which is based in Dublin and has the support of five international scientists.
A spokesman for the group, Mr Fintan Dunne, said: "Haemophiliacs are particularly prone to produce an erroneous diagnosis of HIV infection when tested for the virus. Side-effects of HIV medications and other drugs can cause clinical symptoms which mimic those of AIDS."
The submission asserts that the true causes of illness and death in haemophiliac patients are the side-effects of certain forms of therapy, including "fatal side-effects of anti-HIV medication erroneously prescribed as a result of incorrect HIV/AIDS diagnosis".
"We outline and substantiate alternative causes of morbidity and mortality that merit examination by the tribunal . . . [and] stand ready to assist, in any way we can, the course of your inquiries," it adds.
The five scientists named as supporting the submission are also members of the AIDS advisory panel established last year by the South African President, Mr Thabo Mbeki.
The Aidsmyth group is currently consulting a South African barrister, Mr Anthony Brink, who is visiting Ireland.
Mr Brink is part of a legal team which last month instituted a damages claim for £122,000 against Glaxo Wellcome SA, the South African subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, on behalf of the widow and five-year-old son of a South African solicitor, the late James Hayman.
The summons in the case attributes Mr Hayman's death to his treatment with the anti-AIDS drug AZT, which is produced by GlaxoSmithKline.
"The significance of the Hayman court action for the Lindsay tribunal is that the HIV-positive Irish haemophiliacs who died were treated with AZT-based drug cocktails," the group said in a statement.
The group's tribunal submission claims the blood-clotting agent administered to haemophiliacs weakens the immune system. The submission continues that side-effects arising from prolonged use of corticosteroid drugs prescribed to haemophiliacs are indistinguishable from medical conditions arising from HIV infection.
Similarly, it contends that side-effects of drugs prescribed to haemophiliacs to counteract AIDS can cause symptoms similar to AIDS.
Mr Brink's book, Debating AZT, published in South Africa last year, is said to have influenced President Mbeki's thinking on the AIDS issue.