Mad Cow Disease Found in 8th Blood Donor

From Mad Cow Disease Found in 8th Blood Donor

A donor whose blood was used to transfuse 10 people and to manufacture medicines has been identified as France's eighth known victim of the human equivalent of mad cow disease, health officials announced Thursday.

Authorities are working to identify the 10 blood recipients. Once identified, their doctors will inform them they may have been exposed to the disease, said Jean-Francois Riffaud of France's national blood service.

The person, the eighth identified since 1996 to be suffering from CJD in France, "was a blood donor several times between 1993 and 2003," said a statement from France's Directorate General of Healt.

Blood from the donor was also used in the manufacture of 88 batches of medicines, enough for several thousand people, officials said. Authorities identified 16 batches that remained in circulation and have recalled them.

Holy cow
That�s scary, isn�t it?
Many people can have CJD without knowing it...

In case anyone wonders about our blood supply, measures are taken to reduce the risk of contamination of blood used in the US. The FDA has at least done something to reduce the risk of transmission, even though at this time there is no test for vCJD (mad cow) in blood and blood products.

When donating blood, donors are asked many questions related to time spent in the UK, Europe, their Military history (commisaries purchased beef from the UK for years), and even time spent vacationing overseas. Anyone in the UK or Europe since 1980 is under scrutiny, and many folks are deferred indefinitely from donating blood because of a small chance that they might have been exposed to vCJD. Anyone having received a blood transfusion, clotting factor, or growth hormone overseas anywhere is not elligible to donate blood.

Of course, should the disease or just plain ol' CJD is already silently rampant in the US population, then we're in not-so-good shape. However, the symptoms have not been as prevalent or frequent in the cattle here in the US as they were in the UK years ago when this all started, so hopefully we have avoided a widespread contamination. It's possible that those who have vCJD in the UK were infected when mad cow was first known, and harbored the disease for years silently and that problem from years ago is just now being discovered. If that's the case, I at least feel a little better we've not had such an outbreak here. If that's not the case and infection is already here in the population, then there isn't much we can do about it but enjoy our burgers.

They ask many detailed questions about time spent in the UK and Europe and vacations there during the specific time when BSE/vCJD was prevalent there, in Canada when you're donating blood, as well.

As a precaution against the theoretical risk of vCJD, people are not eligible to donate blood or plasma in Canada if they have spent a cumulative total of three months or more in the United Kingdom (U.K.) since 1980, or if they have spent a cumulative total of three months or more in France since 1980, or if they have spent a cumulative total of five years or more in Western Europe outside the U.K. or France since 1980. In addition, people are not eligible to donate blood or plasma if they have had a blood transfusion in the U.K. since 1980.

I think this is a good policy.

Canadian Blood Services