Medics more concerned about HIV transmission than hepatitis, blood inquiry told
Doctors treating haemophilia patients at an Edinburgh hospital around 1985 were more concerned about whether blood products might transmit HIV than hepatitis, an inquiry has heard.
The Infected Blood Inquiry was told a blood product available called NY was heat-treated, which was believed to inactivate HIV but not non-A, non-B hepatitis.
Thousands of patients across the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C – which was previously known as non-A, non-B hepatitis – through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
About 2,400 people died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
Professor Christopher Ludlam, consultant haematologist and reference centre director at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh from 1980 to 2011, continued giving evidence to the UK-wide inquiry remotely on Friday.
Jenni Richards QC asked him whether there was a need for a system to be put in place at the Royal Infirmary and other hospitals at the time to ensure patients with mild haemophilia did not receive NY unless absolutely necessary.
He replied: “A patient with mild haemophilia or a child with haemophilia who had a significant or serious bleed might still require treatment with clotting factor concentrate.
“At this time and over the following year or two, our chief concern was the possibility that blood products might transmit HIV, that was the really important thing.
“We were very keen indeed to try and avoid HIV transmission because of the consequences of it, and that in our minds became more important I think than the issue of non A, non B hepatitis, our first aim was to try and avoid HIV transmission.”
The inquiry also heard that in the summer of 1986, a young haemophiliac patient developed non A, non B hepatitis after receiving a heat-treated product.
Prof Ludlam said he had not been informed about the patient and was “upset” and “disappointed” to hear about it.
The inquiry before chairman Sir Brian Langstaff continues.
