NoBlood

Dutch Curb Blood Donation Due to Mad Cow Link

Thu Dec 9, 2004 03:10 PM GMT

By Paul Gallagher



AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Netherlands announced strict new curbs on blood donation on Thursday over concerns about the potential transmission of the human version of mad cow disease through blood transfusion.

Donors who received a blood transfusion since 1980 will be banned from giving blood as a "precautionary measure" following two suspected British cases of the transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) through transfusion.

"Excluding so-called 'transfusion donors' can fight the possible ... spread of vCJD," Dutch Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst said in a letter to parliament, citing concerns about the two British cases of the deadly brain disease.

In Britain more than 140 people have died from vCJD. Eight people in France have been diagnosed with the disease, and a few in other countries, including the first in Ireland and a woman who died in Florida this year.

The Netherlands has no cases of vCJD, a degenerative brain disorder that leads to dementia.

Variant CJD is the human equivalent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, which is linked to eating meat infected with BSE. The illnesses are caused by brain proteins that transform themselves into infectious agents.

Britain announced what was thought to be the world's first case of transmission of variant vCJD via transfusion last December after a patient died several years after receiving blood from a donor later found to have had the illness.

Britain's second suspected case was reported in July, raising concern among Dutch health authorities.

The Netherlands already has a raft of measures to prevent vCJD, including a ban on anyone donating blood who lived in the United Kingdom for six months or more between 1980 and 1996.

"Testing of donor blood for Creutzfeldt-Jakob is not an alternative because there is no test available to detect this disease," the Dutch Health Ministry said.

Dutch health officials said they expected only 8 percent of donors to be hit by the new rules. Blood banks will launch a drive to encourage new donors to come forward and health officials do not expect a shortage due to the new measures.

Mad cow disease, first emerged in British cattle in the 1980s and forced the destruction of millions of cattle. After assuring people beef was safe, British officials later were forced to admit that some people apparently had caught a human version of BSE from eating certain products. There have been more than 70 BSE cases in the Netherlands since 1997.

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