blood banks uk
When will the full effects of the BSE epidemic in the UK become known, and what might they be?
Background- I was barred from giving blood today at a foreign blood bank because of BSE! No joke… English people are not allowed to give blood in Japan. I wonder, is this just foolish or just caution?
In humans, it is known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD or nvCJD), and by April 2008, it had killed 164 people in Britain, and 40 elsewhere with the number expected to rise because of the disease’s long incubation period. Between 460,000 and 482,000 BSE-infected animals had entered the human food chain before controls on high-risk offal were introduced in 1989.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a sporadic or familial prion disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) is a variant form. Symptoms include dementia, myoclonus, and other CNS deficits; death occurs in 1 to 2 yr. Transmission can be prevented by taking precautions when handling infected tissues and using bleach to clean contaminated instruments. Treatment is supportive.
Donors are examined for signs and symptoms of diseases that can be transmitted in a blood transfusion, such as HIV, malaria, and viral hepatitis. Screening may extend to questions about risk factors for various diseases, such as travel to countries at risk for malaria or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). These questions vary from country to country. For example, while Québec may defer donors who lived in the United Kingdom for risk of vCJD, donors in the United Kingdom are only restricted for vCJD risk if they have had a blood transfusion in the United Kingdom
Beardyman at the Beatbox Convention 2008 (mic & kaos pad) p1