Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease linked to blood transfusion
Wed, 17 Dec 2003 19:09:32
LONDON - British health officials say they may have come across the world's first case of the human form of BSE transmitted through a blood transfusion.
* INDEPTH: Mad Cow Disease
An unidentified patient died earlier this year. In 1996, the patient received blood from a donor who later died of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).
Variant CJD is the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.
The original infected donor showed no signs of the brain-wasting illness when giving blood. He developed the disease three years later.
It isn't possible to determine whether the recipient contracted the disease from blood or if they were both infected independently by eating BSE-infected meat, Britain's health secretary told Parliament on Wednesday.
"This is a possibility, not a proven causal connection," John Reid said.
In 1997, Britain began applying safeguards for its blood supply. Most of the world's cases of vCJD have been in Britain.
* FROM SEPT. 24, 2003: New Brunswicker dead of Creutzfeldt-Jakob
All blood products for surgery in Britain are now imported from the United States, which has no reported cases of the disease.
There is no blood test to detect variant CJD before symptoms develop. Screening blood donations is therefore impractical.
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/CBC/2003...jd_blood031217
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