Moves to refuse blood donations from people who lived in Britain during the height of the BSE crisis will have a "profound" effect on the blood supply in Ireland, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service has warned. The measure has already been implemented in Canada, USA, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the IBTS said in a statement posted on its website.
"The implementation of such a ban in Ireland will have a profound effect on the blood supply," it said.
"The percentage of donors who will be excluded in the above countries is 2 per cent to 5 per cent. The exclusion rate in Ireland is estimated at 13 per cent." It said the introduction of the ban in the Republic will have to be done in tandem with measures to increase the number of acceptable donors "while minimising the risk wherever possible.
"At present there has been no known transmission of CJD from transfusion but the IBTS has taken the view that all possible precautionary measures should be identified and implemented," it said.
CJD, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, is the human form of mad cow disease.
There is, as yet, no screening test available for CJD in blood products. However, the IBTS has introduced treatment of blood products to limit any risk of transmission of CJD from blood transfusion. The board said it was one of the earliest bodies to introduce this.
pomorain@irish-times.ie
Irish Blood Transfusion Service: http://ibts.healthyirish .com/