Blood service to lose 5,000 donors

vCJD risk: The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) is set to lose up to 5,000 regular donors due to new measures coming into force today aimed at further reducing the risk of vCJD transmission.

The measures include a ban on people who have spent three years or more in the UK between 1980 and 1996 from giving blood.

Anyone who has received a blood transfusion on or after January 1st 1980 in the Republic is also now barred from donating.

The move follows the discovery last December of a probable case of vCJD transmission by blood transfusion in the UK.

The IBTS said it had evaluated the situation in light of this case and had decided to introduce the new controls from today. As well as banning two new categories of people from donating outright, the IBTS will no longer allow transfusions for neonatal patients from donors who have spent more than 12 months in the UK.

The move strengthens precautionary measures introduced following the blood scandals of the 1980s, and the first emergence of the vCJD risk a decade ago. Since April 2001, the IBTS has refused to accept donations from people who had spent five years or more in the UK between 1980 and 1996.

Dr William Murphy, IBTS national medical director, urged anyone who had not donated before, or who had not donated recently, to become a donor if they fulfil the accepted criteria.

"We are taking these measures to further reduce the threat of transmission of vCJD through blood transfusion. This will result in the loss of nearly 5 per cent of our donors. We still need to collect 3,000 donations per week to ensure that we can supply hospitals with the blood necessary for patient care."

IBTS chief executive Mr Andrew Kelly said: "We realise by introducing these measures we will lose some of our most loyal donors. We would like to thank them for the difference they have made to so many lives."

Fears about the possibility of variant CJD being transmitted through blood were heightened last December following the death of a 69-year-old man in the UK from the human form of mad cow disease. The man had received a blood transfusion during an operation in 1997 and subsequently developed vCJD.

Following the disclosure of the case, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said it must be assumed that vCJD could be transmitted by blood transfusion. At present, there is no test available to screen blood for vCJD, and nor is such a test in development. Only one person, a woman who had lived in the UK, has been diagnosed with vCJD in the Republic.