Tests reveal CJD blood risk

    Scientists say there is "an appreciable risk" of people catching
    the human form of BSE through blood transfusions, a significant
    upgrading of the threat posed by the inevitably fatal disease. 

    The results from tests on sheep, seen by the Guardian, suggest the
    danger is far more serious than first suspected. Previously the
    risk has been described by the government as "theoretical". 

    One in six animals given blood from infected sheep appear to have 
    caught the disease so far. The experiments by scientists at the
    Institute of Animal Health indicate that more blood components than
    previously thought might carry the killer agents of BSE and variant
    CJD, and the blood might be infective long before animals, and by 
    extension humans, show outward signs of the long-incubating diseases. 

    The findings, circulated to blood specialists, are regarded as 
    enormously significant. They have prompted urgent consideration of new
    measures to protect the public and orders to hospitals to drastically
    reduce their use of blood, including using technology that allows
    the recycling of patients' own blood. 

    But the Department of Health and blood transfusion services last night
    appealed to the public to continue donating blood. The national blood
    service, which has nearly 2m donors in England and Wales, said: "We 
    still need to collect about 10,000 units a day because there are people
    in hospital who rely on transfusions. We need to strike a balance 
    between an unknown risk and maintaining sufficient supplies." 
    
    The government has introduced precautionary measures over blood but it
    considered the risk theoretical even after autumn 2000, when scientists
    in Edinburgh and Compton, Berkshire, revealed that the blood from a 
    sheep fed cattle brain infected with BSE had infected a previously 
    healthy animal. 

    The possibility of a blood test for vCJD next year, though essential 
    for public safety, might dissuade up to half Britain's donors from
    offering blood, because people would have to face being told they have
    an incurable disease.     James Meikle, health correspondent

    Saturday August 3, 2002
    The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4475040,00.html
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