Boy was not retested until a year later, and then only by chance

A young haemophiliac who showed signs of having HIV antibodies in January 1985 was not retested for a further 12 months, and then it was only by chance, the tribunal was told yesterday.

Rory, whose mother gave evidence to the tribunal last December under the pseudonym Jackie, was first tested for the virus in December 1984. The result which came back from the UK the following month was a "queried" negative.

This, said Prof Ian Temperley, meant some reaction had been recorded which would have necessitated retesting. No further test was carried out, however, until January 1986 when Rory was admitted to hospital for a knee operation.

Asked why the delay occurred, the doctor said he did not know but presumed it was "in the hands" of the Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD, which was examining returned results from the Middlesex Hospital. Later, he said, he thought he was informed that retesting took place in June 1985 while he was on sabbatical leave.

The VRL, which is not currently represented at the tribunal, is to be contacted by the inquiry's legal team for a response to the doctor's evidence.

Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Finlay SC, noted with concern that there was no indication that a test would have taken place had Rory not gone in for the operation.

But Prof Temperley said a retest would have been "inevitable". All patients, including those who tested positive, underwent re-testing, he said.

Turning to the issue of unheat-treated BTSB Factor 9, which infected seven haemophilia B patients with HIV, Prof Temperley said he had stopped receiving the product from Pelican House by the end of November 1985. He said he presumed stocks of unused material at St James's Hospital, where he practised, were recalled.

The tribunal has heard, however, that one patient at the hospital continued using the untreated product until February 1986.

Prof Temperley agreed a "weakness" at the time was that there was no formal mechanism for collating and disseminating information to treaters around the State.

In the UK information was pooled to establish overall patterns for the country. In this State information was largely shared only between haemophilia centres in Dublin and Cork.

Of the seven HIV cases in haemophilia B patients, three were from St James's, three from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, and one from Cork University Hospital.