AN INVESTIGATION has been launched to establish if victims of vCJD, the incurable human form of BSE or ‘mad cow disease’, were infected as a result of receiving transfusions of contaminated blood.
It has been revealed that up to six people developed vCJD after receiving blood transfusions, one of whom had received about 100 pints of blood.
The inquiry has been launched amid increasing concern over the potential risk of transmission of the
degenerative brain condition through blood and blood products, some of which are pooled from thousands of donors.
Experts including staff from Edinburgh’s national vCJD surveillance unit meet this month for a progress report on patients who received blood and then developed vCJD.
It has previously been established that 11 vCJD victims had donated blood, although no-one who received it has since developed vCJD.
But a parallel study has also found six victims who are thought to have had blood transfusions before they became ill.
Of those, four had transfusion records which have been traced. They showed the patients had received blood which could be traced to 111 donors. One of the patients was given 103 units of blood, about 100 pints.
So far, none of the donors have been identified as vCJD cases. But the latest annual report on vCJD states that checks remain "incomplete".
Meanwhile, all new cases of vCJD are being investigated to establish if those patients had blood transfusions or donations of other blood products, such as those give to haemophiliacs.
Professor James Ironside, head of the surveillance unit, said: "Some patients who developed vCJD have themselves received blood transfusions and one arm of the study is to look at the donors of those units to see if they died of vCJD."
It is understood the meeting, which will also involve staff from the National Blood Service, will also debate whether to tell people who still do not know they received blood from donors who developed vCJD.
Ironside said: "Do we tell these people [recipients of blood] and if so how do we tell them and what support do they need? Are some at higher risk than others and should we be focusing on them or should we tell everyone? Are the risks theoretical or is there good reason that there’s a significant risk and if it is what should we do?"
Last year, more than 300 haemophiliacs in Britain received letters informing them they may have been given blood products potentially infected with vCJD .
As of February this year, 130 cases of definite or probable vCJD had been identified in Britain. The condition is thought to have been caused by eating meat or meat products containing the infective agent for BSE. Although there is still no evidence that the agent can be passed through blood, experiments last year suggested there was an "appreciable" risk.
The US has already banned anyone from donating blood who has lived for six months or more in the UK between 1980 and 1996, when the danger of eating infected meat is thought to have been highest.
A spokesman for the National Blood Service said: "The potential of transmission of vCJD by blood transfusion is unknown. There is no evidence worldwide that CJD or vCJD has ever been transmitted through blood or blood products. Our prime concern has always been and will continue to be the safety of patients and donors and the quality of blood and blood products."
