CJD fears prompt blood donor bans
Tue 16 March, 2004 13:51
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - The government is to ban people who have had transfusions over the past 24 years from donating blood to reduce the risk of spreading the human form of mad cow disease.
Health Secretary John Reid announced the move on Tuesday, three months after he reported what is thought to have been the world's first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) caused by a blood transfusion.
"Our experts concluded that the United Kingdom should exclude from donating blood those people who had themselves previously received transfusions of whole blood components since January 1980," Reid told parliament.
He added that the date had been chosen because it is unlikely people would have been exposed to the infection before then.
"I stress that the risk attached to this group of blood donors is uncertain but we are taking these measures as a precaution since the risk may be slightly higher than for the population as a whole," he said.
The blood transfusion ban follows news last December of the death of an unidentified patient who died several years after receiving blood from a donor later found to have had vCJD.
The recipient of the transfusion developed vCJD after a 6-1/2 year incubation period. The donor showed no signs of the disease when the blood was given to the National Blood Service but developed the illness and died from it three years later.
At the time, Reid said it was not certain whether the patient had been infected though a transfusion or by eating meat infected with mad cow disease. But since then, two research studies have shown that infection through blood is a possible route of transmission.
Variant CJD is the human equivalent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, an incurable, degenerative brain disorder linked to eating meat infected with BSE. The illnesses are caused by normal brain proteins, called prions, that transform themselves into infectious agents.
Reid said the ban would lead to less blood available for transfusions but added that measures have been put in place to compensate.
The National Blood Service estimates a loss of 52,000 donors due to the ban.
Reid said the ban will be implemented on April 5.
This is the latest scarmongering or less than clear information issued concerning BSE/CJD here in UK
What does this mean? Just what we need to help sell beef.
Can CJD/BSE be passed in blood?
Are people who have had blood transfusion more likly to get CJD than people who eat beef?
Will blood be safer now if CJD carriers show no signs of infection and are not tested? Why blood tranfusion but not people who ate beef if that is the link?
Is it scaremongering or are there facts which mere mortals would find too much to handle.
With this sort of information is it any wonder BSE causes governments and markets to panic!!!
Tue 16 March, 2004 13:51
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - The government is to ban people who have had transfusions over the past 24 years from donating blood to reduce the risk of spreading the human form of mad cow disease.
Health Secretary John Reid announced the move on Tuesday, three months after he reported what is thought to have been the world's first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) caused by a blood transfusion.
"Our experts concluded that the United Kingdom should exclude from donating blood those people who had themselves previously received transfusions of whole blood components since January 1980," Reid told parliament.
He added that the date had been chosen because it is unlikely people would have been exposed to the infection before then.
"I stress that the risk attached to this group of blood donors is uncertain but we are taking these measures as a precaution since the risk may be slightly higher than for the population as a whole," he said.
The blood transfusion ban follows news last December of the death of an unidentified patient who died several years after receiving blood from a donor later found to have had vCJD.
The recipient of the transfusion developed vCJD after a 6-1/2 year incubation period. The donor showed no signs of the disease when the blood was given to the National Blood Service but developed the illness and died from it three years later.
At the time, Reid said it was not certain whether the patient had been infected though a transfusion or by eating meat infected with mad cow disease. But since then, two research studies have shown that infection through blood is a possible route of transmission.
Variant CJD is the human equivalent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, an incurable, degenerative brain disorder linked to eating meat infected with BSE. The illnesses are caused by normal brain proteins, called prions, that transform themselves into infectious agents.
Reid said the ban would lead to less blood available for transfusions but added that measures have been put in place to compensate.
The National Blood Service estimates a loss of 52,000 donors due to the ban.
Reid said the ban will be implemented on April 5.
This is the latest scarmongering or less than clear information issued concerning BSE/CJD here in UK
What does this mean? Just what we need to help sell beef.
Can CJD/BSE be passed in blood?
Are people who have had blood transfusion more likly to get CJD than people who eat beef?
Will blood be safer now if CJD carriers show no signs of infection and are not tested? Why blood tranfusion but not people who ate beef if that is the link?
Is it scaremongering or are there facts which mere mortals would find too much to handle.
With this sort of information is it any wonder BSE causes governments and markets to panic!!!
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