HAVE YOU SEEN THIS INFORMATION ON BLOOD PRODUCTS?

[Beaaware]

According to SABTO ( Safety Of Blood Tissues & Organs) who advise the government on public health including vCJD (human form of mad cow disease) the following text was added to the labels of all UK blood components on 1st July 2007:

"RISK OF ADVERSE REACTION/INFECTION, INCLUDING vCJD"

I worry that we are not being given this information when we go to hospital for operations, transfusions etc.
Even today people are being told by letter that they may have been exposed to vCJD through contaminated instruments during their operations. The government continue to bury their head in the sand and make out that vCJD is not an ongoing and significant threat to every family in the UK.

Thank goodness for websites such as justiceforandy.com.

Unfortunately the vast majority of the British population have no idea that they are at risk of vCJD through blood components, should we be informed or should we just accept this ? After all it is SABTO who are telling us this is the case. My personal opinion is that we should at least be made aware of the risks of possibly contaminated blood by our health professionals,why not? our government has taken the stance not to screen blood donors for vCJD, is this because it is far cheaper to pay compensation to victims families than to introduce a nationwide blood screening programme. I did not use the word epidemic please do not imply this realrabbit.

Isn't vCJD killed by autoclaves? Can't they just autoclave everything?

Also, how possible is it to have a transfusion from a family member?

This is eerily reminiscent of another scaremongering thread about vCJD I saw recently. Are you on a mission?

Your chances of dying from the illness/injury that requires blood are quite risky too

It would seem you are [http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/bereavement/989686-Why-has-vCJD-killed-so-many here]

My sympathies if you have been affected by this but you do seem to be overly alarmist.

Blood transfusions save people's lives. They don't give them out for just anything; mine was delayed and I got very ill indeed. I am just grateful that I got the blood I needed when I did.

Blood can't be screened for CJD. There is currently no known test to discover who is carrying it. It can only be diagnosed post-mortem. The risk of dying from the reason you need the transfusion is usually far, far greater than the theoretical risk of getting CJD. Be thankful that you live in a country with blood transfusions that are as safe as they possibly can be.

I suppose the questions I ask myself are should or should we not be informed about the risks of vCJD in our blood supplies, if this is viewed as over-reacting by some folk, fine, but for me I prefer to know as much as possible about medical procedures that I am faced with. I have been lied to in the past by a surgeon on this issue, the more I read about vCJD the more I realise it is a serious health issue here a some interesting articles for those people who believe that there are no tests available and who believe that vCJD is not an ongoing health threat:

www.labnews.co.uk/feature_archive.php/5334/5/vcjd:-a-continuing-threat-

www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/April/09040802.asp

www.dailymail.co.uk/health.article-1200669/100m-blood-filter-treatment-stops-CJD-expensive-NHS-patients.html

I feel the same way Riven. I was pressured into have a blood transfusion which I didn't want. I was concerned as I was planning more children and didn't want any issues.

I was patronized and told blood transfusion were perfectly safe and it wouldn't affect future pregnancies and would have no side effects.

But it can do in some people and now I have funny antibodies (RH+ little c and big E)which can/do affect my pregnancies and are the reason my newborn daughter has HDN (luckily a treatable illness) :(

Plus I can never give blood or breastmilk donations even through I found the reference numbers to the two blood sources I received and found out via Manchester blood bank that both of them and me are 'low risk' but because I received their blood I can never donate again :(

PixieOnaLeaf, If you do not like my threads why bother reading or commenting, do you make it a habit of disagreeing with threads you don't like and requesting they be removed? Is this website for anyone to use and join or is it just certain individuals like yourself?

@Beaaware

Your first two links indicate that right now there is no way of screening blood for vCJD.

But that the UK is leading the world in developing such methods and are very liekly to implement them.

In the meantime there is the warning, as you pointed out, but as this risk is extremely low and the indications for blood transfusions normally pretty severe I am at a loss at what a better policy would be.

Artificial blood products may be an option but they have been recently demonstrated (here and here])to be substantially worse than donated blood.

It would seem like the UK government is doing anything but burying it's head in the sand at this time.

DBennett, the first two links clearly indicate that there is a filter capable of cleaning blood for vCJD and to ensure the safety of those needing transfusions. This disposable filter took 5 years to develop and has been approved for sale in Europe from 9th April 2008. Why would ProMetic develop a filter that was no use to the UK but have it available to the rest of Europe? is it because to implement the system nationwide it would cost £100 million? According to the DOH the coalition government are unable to make any commitment regarding future policy on this issue at this stage, I think this is burying it's head.

PixieOnaLeaf, you have taken my words out of context regarding the mental health thread.
Your posts have been reported.

Lots of issues on Mumsnet frighten me and no doubt other mumsnetters, but we can't all be moderators can we.

The device, P-Capt, finished it's standard three yr trials autumn last yr.
It would have been unwise to consider it before then.

There is currently a bill going through parliament to ensure it's use in all receivers of donated blood.

It appears it is already being used in blood for children, but I'm unsure of the details here and my google fu is weak today.

Again, it's hard to characterise this as ignoring the problem.

Thankyou DBennett if only the DOH would give me the same info when requested in writing, but for some reason they do not, hence my view that they are appear to be burying the issue. Can you give me details of the relevant websites where I can read about this?

You can track the bill here.

On a personnel note, I think some of the measures contained within are bad ideas.
And I worry that they may stop the bills progress, as is what happened with an earlier draft.

The compensation package, for example, would make give a unique position to individuals who became ill due to blood transfusions.
I'm not sure why they should be singled out for special treatment.

I also think it's a dangerous precedent giving compensation on an issue which there is not a good case for negligence, regardless of how well you think the original vCJD incident was handled it's difficult to see how it's effects could have been predicted accurately enough to compel preventative action.

"JusticeForAndy"? Yes, that sounds like a well-informed and non-biased place to get information.