The Irish Blood Transfusion Service said yesterday it hoped to be able to introduce a blood test for vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease, within about a year.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Health tried to reassure the public about the safeguards already in place after the revelation that a blood donor has been confirmed with vCJD in a Dublin hospital.
Dr William Murphy, medical director of the IBTS, said a number of international diagnostic companies were close to establishing a reliable test for the disease, which was linked for the first time this week to a blood donor in the State.
Dr Murphy said that the IBTS had put in more safeguards against vCJD than many other transfusion services internationally but it was still seeking to introduce new technologies.
It had recently pioneered tests on a filter system aimed at removing vCJD prions from red blood cells and it hoped to get approval to start clinical trials in late September or October. "We can be reasonably optimistic that we will have some sort of usable test in about a year," he added.
Dr Murphy was speaking following confirmation that a blood donor was being treated at a Dublin hospital for vCJD. The man in question gave blood on just one occasion, and components of his blood were given to only two patients.
One of them was dead from a cause unrelated to the blood donation, and the other was located at a separate Dublin hospital, where he was informed on Thursday of developments.
Dr Murphy declined to discuss the health of the second man, saying he was entitled to his privacy. He added that while there were indications that vCJD could be transmitted by blood, Irish transfusion recipients were better protected than those in the UK because of increased safeguards introduced in 1999.
Since that date the IBTS had begun removing the white cells of blood on the understanding that this substantially reduced the possibility of infection. "We know there is a risk," he said, but there was a reasonable chance that the donor identified this week might not have transmitted the infection.
The man is the first blood donor in the State to be linked with vCJD. Last October a man in his 20s was treated at a Dublin hospital for the condition. He died recently.
Only one other person, a woman who had lived in the UK, has been diagnosed with suspected vCJD in the Republic.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said the public should be reassured that the IBTS operated to the highest international standards, and that all of the safeguards that could be put in place were in place. "Clearly the safeguards we have in place both on the blood side but also on the food [ side] operate at very high standards," she said.
