Blood Center Protects Against Mad Cow Disease

Beginning this month, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has tightened blood donor eligibility requirements in an effort to reduce the theoretical risk of transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human form of mad cow disease, through blood transfusion. The Food and Drug Administration is requiring blood centers nationwide to implement these tighter restrictions. Currently, mad cow disease is not known to be transmitted by blood transfusion and no cases of the disease have been reported in the United States. While animal models suggest that transmission by blood products may be possible, it remains a theoretical risk.

"The experience of the Blood Center is such that these new blood donor requirements are prudent steps, as it remains far better to err on the side of safety," said Dr. Susan Rossman, medical director at the Blood Center.

"The blood supply has always been the hallmark of the Blood Center’s Mission," added Bill Teague, Blood Center president and CEO.

The new FDA guidelines expand the donor deferrals that have been in place since September 1999 for blood donors who have lived or traveled extensively, including U.S. military service, in the United Kingdom and Europe.

For travel to the United Kingdom, donors will be deferred if they have spent time that adds up to three months or longer between 1980 and 1996, or if they received a transfusion in the U.K. at any time since 1980.

For travel in Europe, donors will be deferred if they have spent time that adds up to five years or more since 1980. Also deferred will be those who have spent six months or longer associated with a military base in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Germany from 1980 through 1990; or who spent a total of six months or longer associated with a military base in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey or Greece from 1980 through 1996 (including time spent in the U.K. between 1980 and 1996).

Officials with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center are quick to emphasize that current blood donors should not self-exclude themselves as donors just because they may have traveled to the U.K. and Europe and think they are automatically excluded as a blood donor. Dates of travel or residency and the cumulative length of stay are carefully specified for various countries, and all blood donors should continue to present themselves as eligible donors until their personal travel history can be assessed. The Blood Center expects that close to six percent of current donors may be indefinitely deferred.

The new FDA guidelines come at a time when blood centers are challenged to maintain adequate supplies to meet patient requirements for transfusion therapy. Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is working closely with its donor groups to expand recruitment efforts within those organizations, and is encouraging individual donors to give at least one more time each year. New donors to come forward to replace those who are lost because they no longer meet the eligibility requirements.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is thought to result from eating beef infected with mad cow disease. It is widespread in both the United Kingdom and Europe. Why mad cow disease first appeared in Britain remains a mystery, but the epidemic spread because cattle ate feed that was made with beef byproducts, spreading the infection. European countries imported large quantities of contaminated British feed before the epidemic was known. America’s farmers, by contrast, feed cattle mostly plant proteins and have never seen the disease.

Blood donors with questions may contact the Blood Center’s Medical Services Office at (713) 791-6654 or (713) 791-6612.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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