The question of whether the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB) should heat-treat its Factor 9 blood products for haemophiliacs, to inactivate any viruses they contained, remained "parked" during 1985, the tribunal was told.
This was despite the fact that doctors in the Republic had informed the BTSB they would use only heat-treated products in 1985, following the diagnosis of a haemophiliac with AIDS at a Dublin hospital in November 1984.
Dr Emer Lawlor, deputy medical director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (formerly the BTSB), said the delay was due to concerns about thrombogenicity, which could cause the blood to clot too much.
She agreed with counsel for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Mr John Trainor SC, that heattreated products were available from commercial firms from February 1985 but said no haemophiliac in the Republic who needed Factor 9 had been infected with HIV at this stage. The person diagnosed in November 1984 received Factor 8 blood products.
She said there was perhaps an "exaggerated view" that products made from Irish plasma would be safe, and the BTSB was waiting to see what the blood transfusion service in the UK would decide to do with its Factor 9.
Mr Trainor suggested the sensible thing to have done would have been to stop making nonheat-treated products. "Certainly from this vantage point I would not disagree," Dr Lawlor said.
The tribunal has already heard that no haemophiliac needing Factor 9 became infected with HIV prior to January 1985. However, seven were found to be HIV-positive between July 1985 and August 1986. The BTSB has acknowledged that they were, as a matter of probability, infected as a result of treatment with Factor 9 produced by the BTSB.