An ex-Government minister said if he'd seen a keen document warning how AIDS was spreading among haemophiliacs by 1983 he would have "pressed the panic button".
Lord John Patten, a former junior minister in the Department of Health who served between 1983 and 1985 said he felt ministers should have a seen a letter from Dr Spence Galbraith urging the withdrawal of US-made blood factor products used to treat haemophilia. There is no evidence this was the case.
But Lord Patten said that the letter from Dr Galbraith - then director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre - would have caused him to act. Speaking at the Infected Blood Inquiry in London, the politician also accepted it was wrong for the Government to be telling haemophiliacs that there risk of contracting AIDS from blood products was "very small" at that time.
Read more: Government changed its mind on Infected Blood Inquiry 'because of pressure from campaigners'
The contaminated blood scandal saw thousands infected with viruses like HIV and hepatitis C through blood and blood products they were given as part of NHS treatment. Haemophiliacs who were reliant on blood factor products to manage their condition were particularly hard hit. More than 2,400 people have died - whether after contracting AIDS or through complications caused by hepatitis.
Lord Patten is the latest ex-health minister to give evidence at the independent inquiry into the scandal. Asked if "it might be said to be wrong to suggest that the risk to haemophiliacs was very small", he agreed. At the time - mid 1983 - the official Government position was that there was "no conclusive proof" connecting HIV and AIDS with blood products, but the scientific advice was that it was "likely" that AIDS was caused by a virus which could be transmitted through blood.
Lord Patten said he "unequivocally" believed that ministers ought to have seen the letter from Dr Gabraith - again dating to mid 1983. It warned: "I have reviewed the literature and come to the conclusion that all blood products made from blood donated in the USA after 1978 should be withdrawn from use until the risk of AIDS transmission by these products has been clarified."
The ex-minister said: "And if I saw it, forgive the colourful language, I think I would have pressed the panic button. Because the information given was a broad range of knowledge showing detail about what was happening with the FDA in the USA and what was going on in Spain."
He added that the letter "seems to me so fundamental" - and added: "I don't know quite where this information had been buried."
Ending his evidence, Lord Pattern said: "It is simply very wrong that setting up of this Inquiry took so many decades and so many administrations. That fact, which is indisputable, is a terrible reflection on our systems in this country and, to me, anyway, represents a clear failure of the state.
"The second point is briefer but heartfelt. I do wish to repeat my profound, truly felt and meant sympathy to all those affected by infected blood. It is truly sombring and sobering to reflect on the experiences of so many."
The Infected Blood Inquiry is expected to continue for the rest of this year, with witnesses set to include former Prime Minister John Major and ex-Health Secretaries including Andy Burnham and Jeremy Hunt.
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