Ministers issue CJD donor warning
One hundred blood donors have today been notified by the Department of Health (DoH) that they may be carrying vCJD.
The warnings are being made as a precautionary measure after three patients who received blood from the donors in 1993/4 died of the human form of mad cow disease.
As a public health safeguard the 100 people will be asked not to donate blood, tissue or organs in the future.
They will also be advised to inform health professionals if they have surgery or other invasive procedures, so that extra precautions can be taken.
The DoH claims the procedures are a precautionary measure designed to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease.
“When a recipient of a blood transfusion goes on to develop vCJD, we have to consider the possibility that the infection could have been passed on through the transfusion,” said chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson.
“Until a reliable blood screening test becomes available, it is sensible to proceed with highly precautionary measures such as this to rule out any possibility of onward transmission of the disease.”
The notification letters, being sent out by the National Blood Service, will provide the telephone number for a dedicated helpline, staffed by senior transfusion experts.
It is not known for certain that the three patients who died did contract the disease from the blood they received.
Currently there is no test for the brain wasting disease, so those at risk have no way of knowing whether they have vCJD. It is possible that an infected person may never develop symptoms.
