The incidence of liver failure in haemophiliacs infected in the 1980s with hepatitis C is continuing to rise, a British expert told the Lindsay tribunal yesterday.
Dr Paul Giangrande, director of the Oxford Haemophilia Centre, said a new study showed the death toll from liver disease and liver cancer in Britain had risen fourfold since 1992, from 51 to 212.
Under cross-examination by Mr Martin Hayden SC, for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Dr Giangrande agreed the situation with hepatitis C was the reverse of that with HIV, where most fatalities were in the years immediately following the use of infected blood products.
HIV had a rapid, severe and early impact on haemophiliacs, whereas hepatitis C had more drawn-out consequences.
At the first public sitting of the tribunal since the summer recess, Dr Giangrande told how he tried to contact all his patients with hepatitis C as soon as hepatitis C test results became available.
He was "confident" that by the end of 1993 about 95 per cent would have been informed of results. "A rump of patients" could not, however, be traced. It has been alleged at the tribunal that some haemophiliacs in the State were not informed of their hepatitis C test results until the late 1990s, up to six years after samples were taken for testing.
Earlier, the tribunal heard that the rate of HIV infection among haemophiliacs at London's Royal Free Hospital was greater than initially reported to the inquiry.
In a letter to the tribunal, read into evidence, Prof Christine Lee, director of the hospital's haemophilia centre, said 101 of 134 severe haemophilia A patients were infected with the virus. Seven of 102 mild-moderate haemophilia A patients were also infected.
Of haemophilia B patients, only one in 26 severe patients and no mild-moderate patients were infected.
The tribunal was adjourned until Thursday.
