CJD blood donor ban starts

Monday, 5 April 2004 12:00 AM

As of today patients who have had blood transfusions within the last 24 years will be banned from giving blood.

The ban comes in amidst fears over the human form of variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of BSE.

The move follows medical research that demonstrated a "slight risk" of transmitting the disease through blood transfusion. The ban applies to anyone who has been given blood after January 1980.

Health secretary John Reid has revealed that a man who was killed by vCJD could have contracted the disease through a transfusion.

National Blood Services say this ban might result in 3.2 per cent of Britain's 1.7 million blood donors being barred, prompting calls for fresh donors.

However, the ban may be looked at again if a blood test for vCJD is developed.

"At the moment you can't test for vCJD in blood but if scientists develop a test then that would obviously be reviewed and potential donors could be screened," said a spokesman for the Department of Health.

The ban goes back to 1980 as it is widely believed that the UK had no exposure to BSE before that date.

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