Bill Oliver wrote:

In article ,
Janet Baraclough.. wrote:

There is another way to contract nv CJD, via human blood products and
contaminated surgical instruments, which may explain why vegetarians
also develop the disease.

Janet.

Please provide a citation of a case of BSE/vCJD transmitted by blood transfusion.
Blood transfusion is an inefficient method of transmission in sheep, and as
far as I know, there has never been a case in humans. If you have a case,
please cite it.

More important, please cite the actual calculated risk (for example, see:
Dealler S. Transfus Med. 1996 Sep;6(3):217-22 A matter for debate: the risk
of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans posed by blood transfusion in
the UK.)

It's one thing to trumpet a theoretical risk. It's another to look at what
the risk actually *is.*

billo

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=14962520

Lancet. 2004 Feb 7;363(9407):417-21.

Comment in:
Lancet. 2004 Feb 7;363(9407):411-2.

Possible transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by blood
transfusion.

Llewelyn CA, Hewitt PE, Knight RS, Amar K, Cousens S, Mackenzie J, Will
RG.

National Blood Service, Cambridge Centre, Cambridge CB2 2PT, UK.

BACKGROUND: Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a novel human
prion disease caused by infection with the agent of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE). Epidemiological evidence does not suggest that
sporadic CJD is transmitted from person to person via blood transfusion,
but this evidence may not apply to vCJD. We aimed to identify whether
vCJD is transmissible through blood transfusion. METHODS: The national
CJD surveillance unit reported all cases of probable or definite vCJD to
the UK blood services, which searched for donation records at blood
centres and hospitals. Information on named recipients and donors was
provided to the surveillance unit to establish if any matches existed
between recipients or donors and the database of cases of vCJD.
Recipients were also flagged at the UK Office of National Statistics to
establish date and cause of death. FINDINGS: 48 individuals were
identified as having received a labile blood component from a total of
15 donors who later became vCJD cases and appeared on the surveillance
unit's register. One of these recipients was identified as developing
symptoms of vCJD 6.5 years after receiving a transfusion of red cells
donated by an individual 3.5 years before the donor developed symptoms
of vCJD. INTERPRETATION: Our findings raise the possibility that this
infection was transfusion transmitted. Infection in the recipient could
have been due to past dietary exposure to the BSE agent. However, the
age of the patient was well beyond that of most vCJD cases, and the
chance of observing a case of vCJD in a recipient in the absence of
transfusion transmitted infection is about 1 in 15000 to 1 in 30000.