Children with haemophilia were boycotted at schools around the State in the mid-1980s, such was the hysteria about AIDS and its association with haemophiliacs, the tribunal heard.
Mr Brian O'Mahony, chairman of the Irish Haemophilia Society (IHS) and president of the World Federation of Haemophiliacs, said health workers and the public were generally terrified of AIDS at the time.
He said there was an incident in 1987 when a young man with haemophilia who had cut himself went into hospital "down the country" and said he was HIV positive. "Rather than treating him they burnt his clothes, they burnt his crutches and they sent him to St James's in a sealed ambulance.
"The headline in the local paper was along the lines that the local community had been saved from this dreadful disease which could have befallen them. You can imagine the effect that had on people with haemophilia in that locality," he said.
Mr O'Mahony, a laboratory technician who is haemophiliac, said the public association of AIDS with haemophilia badly damaged the dignity and self-esteem of the entire haemophilia community. Some media reporting did not help either, he said.
He said those who tested HIV positive were advised to keep illness at bay by eating a good and balanced diet, but for many, this was impossible living on a disability payment of £48 per week. IHS funds helped them out, he said.
He also confirmed IHS delegates attending world conferences were sponsored by drug companies. He said there was nothing objectionable about doctors or representatives of the blood bank availing of similar sponsorship "provided it's done in an above board and transparent way".
At an earlier hearing it had been suggested by a legal representative for the IHS that these trips constituted "junkets" for medical personnel and could have compromised their positions in some way.
Mr O'Mahony suggested hospitals, blood banks and doctors had to have "rules and procedures" for accepting such sponsorship.
He said he found out from the tribunal that a clotting agent made by the BTSB, factor 9, had been responsible for the infection of haemophiliacs with HIV. He had suspicions before but it took the tribunal to confirm them, he said.
Mr O'Mahony will conclude his evidence today, and then the tribunal will adjourn for a week.