| -Caveat Lector-
Have you noticed how the Xspurts finally
come round to admitting what we already knew!
The Mermaid x
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992632
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vCJD risk from blood transfusion "appreciable" 12:50 05 August 02 from www.NewScientist.com news service People are more likely to contract the human form of mad cow disease through blood transfusions than scientists thought, say researchers at the UK's Institute of Animal Health. Their research also questions whether current blood separation precautions are sufficient. The ongoing study on 24 sheep has found that two have contracted BSE after being transfused with blood from infected sheep, and two more have clinical signs of the disease. "If the clinically suspect BSE-transfused sheep progress as expected, this would bring the transmission rate for BSE up to 17 per cent," the researchers, led by Nora Hunter at the IAH Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh, write in the Journal of General Virology. BSE-infected sheep are thought to be the best animal model for humans infected with vCJD. "From these preliminary results, it would appear that measures taken to safeguard the blood supply in the UK are fully justified," the team writes. But those precautions may not be enough. Red alert Previous work has suggested that BSE, and by extension vCJD, infectivity is concentrated in the white blood cell fraction of blood. Therefore, blood donated in the country is filtered to remove most white blood cells, and most of the plasma used is imported from overseas. But the sheep in the study got transfusions of whole blood or white blood cell fractions. And so far none of the seven sheep transfused with BSE-infected white blood cells have developed the disease. The two confirmed and two suspected cases are both among the 17 sheep that received one unit of whole blood. The study could take five years to complete, but "these results suggest that there may also be significant levels of infectivity in the plasma and/or red cell fractions," the researchers write. Another study by the team on the transmission of scrapie - a BSE-like sheep disease - through blood transfusion has found similar results. The researchers reported the first confirmed case of BSE transmission to sheep via blood transfusion in September 2000. This first case received blood from a donor before the donor showed clinical signs of BSE. The UK Department of Health says it recognises that the blood of patients with vCJD might contain transmissible levels of activity before clinical signs become apparent. Tonsil test So far, there is no evidence that anyone has contracted vCJD as a result of a blood transfusion. In the UK, 115 people have died from vCJD, and another 10 people are showing classic symptoms. Twenty-two people have received transfusions from eight people who later developed vCJD - but none has yet shown symptoms of the disease. But post-mortem studies of the sheep suggests that infectious prions transmitted through transfusion do not spread through the body in the same way as prions transmitted through eating infected material. The researchers found far fewer prion deposits in the lymphoid tissues - such as tonsils - of the transfused infected sheep. "There may be implications for human patients with the misfortune to have received blood products from vCJD cases, because a negative tonsil biopsy might very well be unreliable," the team writes. The UK government is now reviewing blood donation procedures. It has appealed to the public to continue donating blood. Journal reference: Journal of General Virology (vol 83, DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.18580-0) Emma Young Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
