Anyone who lived in Britain for more than a year between 1980 and 1996 will be barred from donating blood from November under new measures aimed at reducing the risk of vCJD transmission, writes Joe Humphreys.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) announced the measure yesterday amid warnings in Britain that thousands of patients may have been exposed to the brain-wasting disease through plasma products.
Dr Joan O'Riordan, consultant haematologist with the IBTS, said it expected to lose about 5 per cent - 5,000 - of its donors due to the ban, which would apply to anyone who had lived a cumulative period of 12 months in Britain during the time when the human form of mad-cow disease - BSE - was at its height.
The decision follows yesterday's announcement in Britain of a major consultation process with people who had received plasma products derived from the blood of nine British donors who have since died of vCJD.
The British Department of Health said more than 6,000 people - mostly haemophiliacs - would receive letters explaining the situation and to help minimise the possibility of passing on the disease.
The National Haemophilia Council, which oversees the treatment of haemophiliacs in Ireland, has similarly written to Irish haemophiliacs. However, the council stressed yesterday that none of the potentially contaminated British batches of blood product was used in Ireland.
Dr Barry White, medical director of the Dublin-based National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders (NCHCD), said it believed about 20 to 30 haemophiliacs living in Ireland may have received treatment in Britain between 1980 and 2001.
About half a dozen sufferers of rare blood disorders may also have received British-sourced plasma-derived concentrates. The NCHCD is to hold information meetings for haemophiliacs who used blood products in Britain or had concerns. A special helpline has been set up at 1800 200 849.
Dr White stressed there had never been a case of vCJD in a person with haemophilia in the world, nor was there evidence of transmission of the disease through concentrates.
The nine British donors, whose blood was used to make such products as factor VIII and factor IX concentrates, are part of a larger group of 15 blood donors who have died of vCJD. Their donations have to date been linked with two suspected cases of vCJD transmission through blood transfusions in Britain. One of the transfusion recipients died from vCJD. The other died from an unrelated cause but was found to be carrying the vCJD agent.
The British Health Secretary, Dr John Reid, and the British Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said yesterday their writing to haemophiliacs was a highly precautionary measure and the risk of any of the patients developing vCJD was very small.
Mr Brian O'Mahony of the National Haemophilia Council said because Ireland did not import any British products, there was no risk of any haemophiliac treated exclusively in Ireland getting vCJD.
Dr O'Riordan said the chance of vCJD transmission in any patient who had received a blood transfusion in Britain was about one in five million. She added it was also "highly unlikely" vCJD was in the Irish blood supply. This was partly due to precautionary measures the IBTS had taken, including the introduction of a ban from donating blood on people who had spent three or more years in Britain.
Only one person has been diagnosed with vCJD in the Republic. The woman, who had lived in Britain, was not a blood donor.