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Wales
British blood is safe, says service
Aug 23 2001
Sam Greenhill THE National Blood Service yesterday defended itself after the
president of the American Red Cross said she would avoid blood from British
people because she feared mad cow disease.
Bernadine Healy said she would "do everything I could" to escape having a
transfusion in Britain.
Asked in New York what she would do if she needed one while on holiday in
the UK, she said, "I would do everything I could not to have one, but I
wouldn't want to have a transfusion in New York for that matter, but that is
my own personal assessment of potential risk.
"We do not know if there is a silent reservoir of people who are carrying this
disease who may be blood donors." The American Red Cross, which
supplies about half the United States' blood, is poised to implement a
controversial strategy to reject European blood donors in case they are
contaminated with vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease.
But the National Blood Service said it had taken precautions to safeguard blood
donated in Britain from the disease.
Spokesman Chris Hartley said, "Her comments are her own views and she is entitled to
them.
"We have erred on the side of caution against this unknown risk and taken various
precautions."
He said a process known as leucodepletion removed the white cells from donated blood,
as they are the ones thought to carry vCJD. Plasma is imported from the United States.
There is no evidence that any BSE-type illness has been spread through blood
transfusions, but US federal health officials have decided a European blood donor ban
is an appropriate precaution.
The decision, which blood banks have expected for some time, is controversial because
the US has blood shortages.
Professor Ian Franklin, medical director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion
Service, was critical of Ms Healy's comments.
He said, "I think those comments aren't very helpful. On the other hand we would
acknowledge that blood transfusions aren't something that you queue up to volunteer
for - it is a treatment like any other medical intervent
ion. It is life saving in the great majority of occasions but there are complications.
"We would urge people who need blood transfusions to have their blood transfusions
with confidence.
"I think it is a pretty absolutist principle for someone who is 5,000 miles away and
probably thinks that in this way they can somehow protect the USA from variant CJD or
BSE.
"I think that is probably highly unlikely and the big worry for them is that patients
in New York are going to run out of blood, possibly be denied cancer treatment and
die, for a risk that may be theoretical."
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