First report of blood donor and recipient both dying of human form of mad cow di

[Guest guest]

Posted 12/17/2003 9:52 AM

• Taiwan's new SARS case raises questions about sloppy procedures

First report of blood donor and recipient both dying of human form

of mad cow disease

 

LONDON (AP) — The British government reported on Wednesday a patient

died of the human form of mad cow disease after a blood transfusion

from an infected donor — the first time such a connection has been

reported.

Health Secretary John Reid told Parliament it was not possible to

determine whether the transfusion recipient contracted the fatal

brain-wasting illness through the blood transfer or whether the two

people were independently infected. He said, however, it was the

first report supporting the idea that the disease might be

transmitted through blood transfusions.

 

Experts have long suspected that the disease might be spread through

blood transfusions and have put in place additional precautions

should that prove true.

 

The transfusion reported Wednesday occurred in 1996, one year before

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) safeguards were applied to the blood

supply in Britain, where nearly all variant CJD cases have

developed. All blood products for use in operations in Britain are

now imported from the United States, where there have been no

reported cases of human mad cow disease.

 

The donor had shown no signs of variant CJD when giving blood in

March 1996, but developed the disease three years later, dying the

same year from the condition, Reid said.

 

The recipient of the blood transfusion died this autumn and a post

mortem confirmed variant CJD.

 

" It is therefore possible that the disease was transmitted from

donor to recipient by blood transfusion in circumstances where the

blood of the donor was infectious, three years before the donor

developed variant CJD, and where the recipient developed variant CJD

after a 6{-year incubation period, " Reid told lawmakers. " This is a

possibility, not a proven causal connection. "

 

The link between the blood donor and the recipient was first

reported to officials in the health department last week, at which

time doctors had yet to confirm that the recipient had the disease.

 

" I was first alerted to the developments on Friday Dec. 12 and was

briefed by the Chief Medical Officer on Monday and Tuesday this

week, " Reid said.

 

Reid said 15 people in Britain have received blood donations from

people who have gone on to develop variant CJD. All of them were

being contacted by officials and offered counseling, he said.

 

There is no blood test to screen for variant CJD, which scientists

believe comes from eating products from cows infected with a similar

illness, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE or mad

cow disease.

 

Cattle were infected in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Britain

after they were fed meat and bone meal from infected animals. Since

then, cases have been reported in many other countries, from Europe

to Asia. Experts believe the disease was spread through exports of

infected animals and meat products.

 

The human form of mad cow disease so far has claimed 143 victims in

Britain and 10 elsewhere.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-12-17-madcow_x.htm

Three cases of variant CJD — one each in Ireland, Canada and the

United States — occurred in people who had lived in or visited

Britain at the height of the BSE epidemic. The other seven — six in

France and one in Italy — occurred in people who had not been to

Britain.

 

 

---

-----------

..