-Caveat Lector-
Via news.excite.com
> Canada, United States ban British as blood donorsUpdated 5:07 PM
> ET August 17, 1999By Lisa Richwine
>
> ROCKVILLE, Md. (Reuters) - Blood banks in the United States and
> Canada were ordered Tuesday to stop collecting donations from
> people who lived in or frequently visited Britain during the mad
> cow disease outbreak.
>
> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was taking the step
> to prevent donors who ate tainted British beef from possibly
> passing along the human version of mad cow, a fatal degenerative
> brain disorder, through blood transfusions.
>
> Canada's health department Tuesday ordered Canadian Blood
> Services, which collects and delivers blood everywhere in Canada
> except Quebec, to implement a similar ban on Sept. 30.
>
> Hema-Quebec, Canada's other blood agency, plans to bar blood from
> people who spent only a month in Britain. The Quebec agency said
> it can afford a more stringent standard because fewer of its
> donors visit Britain.
>
> The FDA, the agency charged with ensuring blood safety, called
> the move "a precautionary measure." No case of mad cow disease or
> its human equivalent has ever been documented in the United
> States, and scientists do not even know if the disease can be
> transmitted through blood.
>
> "No evidence exists that the disease has been transmitted by
> blood transfusion, but current studies cannot exclude this
> possibility," the FDA said.
>
> Dr. Harvey Schipper, a Canadian Blood Services board member, said
> at a news conference Tuesday, "We don't feel we can wait until
> all the evidence is in and make a very clear simple statement,
> because by then who knows what might have happened."
>
> U.S. blood banks said they would adopt the policy but were
> worried about the impact on the nation's blood supply, which is
> projected to fall short of demand in 2000 unless recent trends
> change.
>
> The FDA ordered U.S. blood banks to turn away potential donors
> who spent six months or more in Great Britain between 1980 and
> 1996.
>
> About 8 million people donate blood in the United States each
> year. The new limits are expected to decrease blood donations by
> 2.2 percent, or close to 300,000 donations, blood bank officials
> said.
>
> "The donors we are losing from this recommendation will be hard
> to replace," said Jim MacPherson, executive director of America's
> Blood Centers, which collects about half the blood in the United
> States.
>
> Officials in Canada said it will lose 3 percent, or at least
> 20,000 bags, of its donated blood a year.
>
> MacPherson said his group's blood centers will adopt the new
> policy immediately, but he called for a federal campaign to
> recruit new volunteers to replace the lost donors.
>
> The American Red Cross, which collects the other half of the
> nation's blood, said it will implement the policy as soon as
> possible. But Dr. Richard Davey, chief medical officer, said the
> Red Cross also was concerned the new policy, while protecting
> patients from a theoretical risk, could expose them to a real
> risk from a blood shortage.
>
> "We're working hard to recruit new blood donors ... and this ban
> will make our job harder," Davey said. "We are concerned of
> course about safety, but our view is not having enough blood is
> also unsafe."
>
> Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, peaked in
> Britain in 1992, and officials there have taken steps to make the
> blood supply safer. The disease's human equivalent is called new
> variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD).
>
> Scientists are still studying whether nvCJD can be passed through
> blood. The Red Cross said it would urge the FDA to review new
> research to determine whether it could lift the donation ban in
> the future.
>
> In June an outside panel of experts was divided on whether the
> FDA should restrict donations without more convincing data of the
> risk. But a majority voted in favor of limiting at least some
> recent visitors to Britain.
>
> The FDA order applies to donors who visited England, Scotland,
> Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
>
> The FDA also ordered blood banks to reject donors who received
> bovine insulin or other injectable products made from British
> cattle and that are not licensed for sale in the United States.
>
> British beef returned to European markets this month, ending an
> export ban imposed in March 1996.
<< Wonder what BillJeff & Tony would say about
tourism right about now?!? Or could there be any
'bad blood' 'tween them two? A<>E<>R >>
A<>E<>R
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