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Irish patients get blood product linked to 'mad cow' disease
At least 268 people may be affected
December 14, 1997
Web posted at: 7:54 p.m. EST (0054 GMT)DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- A blood product from a donor who later died of the human form of "mad cow" disease was given to 268 patients at nine Irish hospitals before the possible contamination was discovered.
Ireland's Health Department has confirmed a report, first broadcast by the television network RTE, that the British donor died of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which has been called "mad cow" disease.
The patients were given Amerscan Pulmonate Two, which is manufactured with plasma and is used to diagnose lung disease. The Irish Medicines Board notified the health department of the possible contamination on November 26.
RTE reported that blood products traced to that donor have since been destroyed. It remains unclear how many people outside of Ireland may have been affected, according to RTE reporter Pascal Sheehy, who broke the story.
In a statement Sunday, the health department said it was making arrangements for recipients of the product to be informed "in the most sensitive, prudent and sympathetic way possible." Irish health officials are also seeking advice on how to handle the situation from experts on CJD.
Alan Huw Smith, spokesman for the product's British manufacturer, Nycomed Amersham, said the withdrawal of the product was purely precautionary and that nothing had happened to indicate that patients had been afflicted with CJD.
CJD, a fatal malady which causes the brain to waste away, has killed at least 20 people in Britain since March 1996. Suspicions that it was transmitted to humans by eating beef from slaughtered cattle that had "mad cow" disease led to a consumer scare and a ban on beef exports from Britain.
Whether CJD can be transmitted via blood products remains an open question. A spokesman for the American Red Cross told CNN there is no scientific evidence that CJD can be transmitted in this fashion -- but there is also no evidence that such transmission isn't possible.
Related stories:
- Britons brave beefsteak despite mad cow warnings - December 4, 1997
- Eye transplants from woman with deadly disease investigated - November 30, 1997
- EU ban on animal parts upsetting Greek appetites - September 28, 1997
- Are humans endangered if cattle dine on chicken manure? - August 23, 1997
Related sites:
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- The Department of Health and Children
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation, Inc. Website
- Mad-Cow
- Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy fact sheet from the World Health Organization
- Scrapie occurrence and BSE risk factors among European countries
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