Two brothers from a rural area who contracted HIV from contaminated blood products were not told of their infection for at least two years, it was learned at the tribunal yesterday.
In a new set of medical records examined by the tribunal, it emerged that one of the brothers, using the pseudonym Angus, was not told of his condition despite having had two meetings with Prof Ian Temperley, former director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, after he tested positive.
Prof Temperley said he did not tell the man in April or August 1986 because he did not feel he could have coped.
Prof Temperley said the reason Angus's brother, Kieran (also a pseudonym), was not told of his HIV status was that he failed to turn up for appointments on several occasions.
Counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr Martin Hayden, asked Prof Temperley if it was medically acceptable not to tell Angus about his HIV in April 1986, given the risk that he could infect others. Prof Temperley repeated that he felt at the time, rightly or wrongly, that Angus was not "in a position to receive the information" so he "postponed" telling him.
Counsel suggested that when neither man had been told, their GP should have been informed or somebody from the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre should have visited them. Prof Temperley said that in a letter to their GP in August 1986 he implied that Angus was HIV positive.
Angus was eventually told he was HIV positive by Dr Fred Jackson, a member of Prof Temperley's team, in July 1987. He had undergone an HIV test in June 1985, and the results were available from August 1985. Dr Jackson told Kieran he was HIV positive in September 1987, even though his results had also been available since August 1985.
The tribunal heard that another haemophiliac, Mr Jerome Stephens, whose daughter, Karen, gave evidence last May, was not told he had symptoms of AIDS in early 1984 when they were diagnosed.
But in a letter to his GP a consultant at St James's Hospital, Prof Donald G. Weir, said Mr Stephens had enlarged lymph glands possibly associated with AIDS and "accordingly we should keep an eye on him".
Asked about the letter which was sent months before the first haemophiliac was diagnosed with AIDS in the Republic in November 1984, Prof Temperley said he did not see it at the time.
The results of the first batch of HIV tests on haemophiliacs were available in March and April 1985, and had been carried out in Manchester. Prof Temperley had said he did not want to convey these results to patients because he believed they were of a "semi-developmental nature".
He said the Virus Reference Laboratory (VRL) was to retest the samples, but did not. Yesterday he admitted he did not direct the VRL to retest them, but said he "understood" they would be retested.
When the VRL returned the test results to him, it said six of the tests needed to be redone on fresh blood specimens. However, only one of the six was redone. Mr John Finlay SC, for the tribunal, put it to Prof Temperley that he should have arranged these new tests. The doctor admitted he should have.