Britain's Cow Illness Is Issue in Donating of Blood - NYT, January 19, 1999

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NEW YORK TIMES, January 19, 1999

Britain's Cow Illness Is Issue in Donating of Blood

By WARREN LEARY

ASHINGTON -- A scientific advisory panel is asking the

Food and Drug Administration

to consider a basic question: Should a past travel

itinerary help determine who is eligible to

donate blood?

The panel wants the agency to examine the possibility of barring

blood donations from people who

have lived in or visited Great Britain since 1980 because of

concerns about mad cow disease.

Most reported cases of this fatal animal disease, and a human

variant, have occurred in the British

Isles.

Because such a move could have a huge impact on blood collection in

the United States, the panel asked the FDA and blood supply groups

to survey donors and assess the ramifications of blocking perhaps

hundreds of thousands of current contributors from giving blood.

Although there is no evidence that a human version of mad cow

disease is transmitted through blood or blood products, and there

are

no recorded cases of the human disease in the United States, experts

on the panel said they were concerned about the possibility that

a link

between blood and the disease could arise.

The risk of transmitting the disease through blood appears to be

very

low, said a panel member, Dr. S. Burke, the director of the

Center for Immunization Research at s Hopkins University School

of Hygiene and Public Health.

" However, we don't want to find ourselves in a position where we

didn't take the problem seriously

and it crops up as a major health issue 10 or 20 years later, "

Burke said in an interview.

He noted the criticism leveled at health authorities over AIDS by

those who contend the epidemic

might have been mitigated if the disease had been taken more

seriously and fought more

aggressively earlier.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is believed

to be caused by infectious

protein particles called prions, perhaps with the aid of viruses

or other agents. The disease kills

brain cells, leaving the organ full of holes and resembling a

sponge.

A small percentage of people develop a similar condition, usually

late in life, called

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which appears to be hereditary in many

cases but sometimes occurs in

isolation.

In Britain, 34 people have come down with what is called new

variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,

which afflicts a younger population than the traditional

condition. Some scientists suspect that the

new illness is a variation of the animal disease, which may be

transferred to humans from

contaminated meat.

At a meeting last month, the agency advisory committee on

Transmissible Spongiform

Encephalopathies, which is composed of medical and veterinary

experts, voted 9-6 to consider

blocking blood donations from people who had spent time in

Britain in the height of the mad cow

outbreak and, therefore, may have been exposed to the disease.

Representatives of the American Red Cross told the panel that

preliminary surveys of donors

indicated that barring blood donations by people who lived or

traveled in Britain would reduce the

nation's blood supply by 10 percent and require recruiting as

many as one million donors.

Panel members say that before they take up the matter again at a

meeting this spring, when they are

likely to vote on a formal recommendation to the agency, they

need more information on the impact

of such a policy.

Besides worries about the effects on blood availability in this

country, panelists said they were

concerned about the impact on rejected donors and the perceptions

they might harbor over their

individual risks of disease.

There is also the question of time spent in Britain. Would a

person who passed through a British

airport or someone who spent a weekend in London be ineligible to

donate blood? Or would living

in the country for several weeks or months be required?