A professor who was formerly in charge of the treatment of haemophiliacs told the tribunal yesterday that he shared a "common knowledge" with the BTSB as early as 1979 that patients were being exposed to non-A non-B hepatitis through blood products supplied by the board.
Moreover, Prof Ian Temperley said they had assumed the source of the infections was imported blood concentrates.
Despite this, however, Prof Temperley continued to recommend that such concentrates be used and the BTSB continued to approve the recommendation.
Prof Temperley, the medical director of the National Haemophilia Treatment Centre, was being questioned about a 1979 study of liver disease among haemophiliacs carried out under his supervision.
Of 41 haemophiliacs with hepatitis who were examined, only 24 showed signs of hepatitis B. Prof Temperley agreed the remainder must have had either hepatitis A or non-A non-B hepatitis, subsequently labelled hepatitis C.
An additional 98 haemophiliacs without hepatitis were examined, 33 of whom were found to have had persistently raised enzymes. Prof Temperley said the majority of these would have had hepatitis C.
Asked if the findings were conveyed to the BTSB's national director, Dr Jack O'Riordan, Prof Temperley replied he had no recollection of doing so. However, he said they would have shared a knowledge that hepatitis C was occurring in their patients.
Prof Temperley added that, while they would have assumed commercial blood concentrates were the source of the infections, he did not raise the issue with Dr O'Riordan.
Earlier, Prof Temperley said he had no recollection of raising any misgivings about the safety of concentrates with Dr O'Riordan, despite the fact that he was concerned about the concentrates being sourced from paid donors.
He said, however, he had "less concern" about the products than Dr O'Riordan, who was cited in a note dated February 14th 1974 as expressing fears about using concentrates made from the blood of "skid row types" in the United States.
Prof Temperley said he would have been more in favour of concentrates due to the fact that they were much easier to use. "Maybe naively", he said, he thought concentrates were "a step ahead". They were already in use in the UK, he said, and his view was that "what was good for the people in the UK was good for the people in Ireland".
His said he viewed the best product as the one which gave the least trouble to doctor, nurse and patient.
He noted, however, he was "a relatively free agent" and did not have the same responsibilities towards the product as the BTSB.
He said the issue was a source of conflict between himself and Dr O'Riordan who, as well as expressing concern about using products made from non-voluntary donors, criticised what he described as the "blood-letting of the Third World", which needed its own blood products.
