Concerns about the risk of blood products carrying Non-A Non-B (NANB) hepatitis were not taken seriously enough in the mid-1980s, a world-renowned virology expert told the Lindsay tribunal yesterday.
Dr Alfred Prince, a virologist for 36 years with the New York Blood Centre, said it was appreciated "more and more" as time went on in 1985-86 that heat-treated concentrates transmitted the virus, which later became known as hepatitis C.
However, he said, he did not think a consensus had been reached at that stage as there was a "paucity" of research in the area.
Dr Prince, who told the tribunal on Tuesday how he discovered the solvent-detergent method of killing hepatitis C "purely by chance", said it was first licensed in the US in June 1985 and tested in a number of studies in 1986.
In June 1987 he published a review of viral inactivation methods in the European Journal of Epidemiology. Among the procedures examined were the solvent-detergent technology, a superheat-treatment method which was used by the NHS in Britain and conventional heat-treatment.
Questioned by Mr Raymond Bradley, solicitor for the Irish Haemophilia Society, Dr Prince agreed that the review said conventional heat-treatment carried the highest risk of viral transmission, with one study estimating an 84 per cent infection rate.
He further agreed that solvent-detergent and super-heat-treatment technologies seemed to offer safety from viruses.
The review was published a year before the Blood Transfusion Service Board decided to continue supplying conventionally heat-treated products to haemophiliacs in the Republic. The board made the decision in June 1988 on advice from a leading haemophilia treater, Prof Ian Temperley, the import of which is contested at the tribunal.
It was not until 1989 that the BTSB started treating its products with the safer solvent-detergent technology.
Questioned by Mr Michael McGrath SC, for the BTSB, Dr Prince accepted that the number of cases clinically examined in his 1987 review was small, and to reach a definitive conclusion one would need larger studies over time. He agreed that it would have taken a considerable time to implement any recommendations.
Dr Prince said it was reasonable to say that the major concern between 1984 and 1987 was HIV rather than hepatitis C. In 1986, when he published one of his initial reports on the solvent-detergent technology, he said, there were concerns about NANB hepatitis but "they were not taken seriously enough by enough people in my opinion".
