Concerns over blood product `were based on conjecture'

Doubts about the safety of a blood product made by the drugs company Armour were based only on "supposition" and "conjecture" at the time of its use in 1986 on a haemophiliac at St James's Hospital, Dublin, who was infected with HIV, the Lindsay tribunal heard yesterday.

Dr Peter Jones, a leading UK haemophilia specialist, said he had received in 1985 an "anecdotal" report of an infection in London caused by a heat-treated product like the Armour one, along with more definite reports of infections in the Netherlands and the US.

However, he said, by February 1986, when he wrote to Armour expressing concern about its heat-treatment protocol, which sought to kill the AIDS virus, there was still "no evidence" that the product was unsafe.

The tribunal has heard that in that same month the heat-treated Factorate product was given to an Irish haemophiliac in Dublin. According to Dr Emer Lawlor, a witness for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, it was probably this imported product which infected the patient with HIV.

Dr Prince, former director of the Newcastle Haemophilia Centre, was giving evidence on the state of knowledge of treating doctors in 1985-86 on the safety of the Armour product, which was heat-treated at an ineffective intensity.

Before starting his evidence, Mr John Finlay SC, for the tribunal, said the question of whether Dr Jones would give evidence on matters relating to Armour since 1986 "will be left to another day".

Such matters include the company's timeliness in withdrawing its heat-treated product from the market, and its role in informing physicians of the risks associated with it. The tribunal has already heard that Armour was in possession of three reports in October 1985 casting doubt over the product's safety.

These, and other matters relating to the pharmaceutical companies which supplied concentrates to physicians in the Republic, are expected to be addressed in an application next week by the Irish Haemophilia Society to the tribunal for a broadening of the scope of its investigations.

The tribunal's terms of reference state it shall investigate, in so far as is practicable, "anything arising outside the State that it considers relevant". The IHS believes this should include the role and responsibility of drugs companies in the infection tragedy.

Later, Dr Jones described how he used only heat-treated factor 8 and 9 from January 1985 onwards even though this meant he had to rely on commercial concentrates. By that stage, most of his patients were already infected with the AIDS virus with 99 positive cases from 143 haemophiliacs tested for HIV.

The high level of infection, he said, still shocked him.