Haemophiliacs who contracted HIV from blood products made by the Blood Transfusion Service Board were not told the cause of their infection by the BTSB, it emerged yesterday.
Asked why they weren't told, Dr Terry Walsh, a former chief medical consultant of the BTSB said: "I can't answer that."
He said it would have been unethical for him to have known the names of the patients involved.
There was no record of the National Drugs Advisory Board being informed of the cause of their infection either, he agreed.
Five of the seven haemophilia B patients in the State who tested positive for HIV did so in 1986 which was, in the words of Mr Gerard Durcan SC, for the tribunal, "later than one would have expected". The source of their infection has been identified as two batches of BTSB factor 9 clotting agent.
Dr Walsh said the BTSB took no steps to inform patients what infected them. He felt sure they were informed by their doctors. "I don't see why the treating doctors wouldn't do it," he said.
Counsel asked if the BTSB had ensured patients were told by the treating doctors that BTSB product was the source of their infection. "If the BTSB as an organisation wasn't going to do so, did it not seek to see that doctors told them?" Mr Durcan asked.
"Not to my knowledge," Dr Walsh replied. He emphasised he did not become chief medical consultant until January 1988.
Asked by Mr Durcan if it was a source of concern that one of the seven patients tested HIV positive as late as August 1986 - several months after the board had started heat-treating its product to inactivate the HIV virus - Dr Walsh said the board was concerned. "I believe all steps necessary at the time were taken," he said.
It has already emerged the board also failed to inform at least one treating doctor of the infections. Prof Ernest Egan, a treating doctor in Galway, wrote to Dr Walsh in August 1986 saying he was very disappointed to receive the information from a third party (Prof Temperley). Prof Egan believed it was the board's responsibility to communicate this information to him.
Dr Walsh said he had a meeting with Prof Egan in early August and believed he told him, but "obviously it did not register with him". Dr Walsh said he was given the information "very much private and confidential" by Prof Temperley, who told Prof Egan about the problem in August. He believed Prof Temperley was the appropriate person to inform Prof Egan.
The tribunal also heard that in an interview given to a newspaper, published on January 4th, 1987, Dr Walsh was quoted as saying there had been no new cases of AIDS antibodies showing up in Irish haemophiliacs. He also said no Irish person ever got AIDS from a transfusion and "they won't either".
Counsel put it to him that this was inaccurate as he did not mention that five patients had tested HIV positive from BTSB products the previous year.
Dr Walsh said he was speaking off the cuff to a newspaper and it was regrettable if he gave wrong information. He added that this was a very emotive subject at that time. There was a lot of negative publicity and he was concerned about blood supplies which were being compromised.
He added that at the time the chances of getting HIV from a blood transfusion were a million to one. Regrettably one person "in the end" did contract the virus from a transfusion, he said, adding there was still a slight risk today from transfusions.