More than £2 million is to be spent annually to inhibit the possible spread of new-variant CJD through the Irish blood supply. The Department of Health has approved funding for the removal of white blood cells from donated blood, which is seen as one way to reduce the remote risk of transmission of the degenerative brain disease.
The medical director of the Blood Transfusion Service Board (BTSB), Dr William Murphy, said this would be an additional step in the manufacturing process. There was some evidence, he said, following experiments involving scrapie, a related disease, that infectivity could be reduced by removal of all white cells and platelets.
"This evidence is based on just one scientific paper, but it is suggestive that there may be something that can be done to reduce any theoretical risk of nvCJD [being transmitted] to a patient by blood transfusion." NvCJD is believed to be the human equivalent of BSE.
Dr Murphy said the white blood cells do nothing therapeutically and may cause reactions. "If it turns out nvCJD is transmitted through blood transfusion it may further turn out that infectivity is reduced by this." He said it was a lot of money to spend, but it was better to make the investment rather than save money "as a false economy" as had been the case in the past.
The BTSB has had no cases of nvCJD to date, and there has been no proven instance of the transmission of the disease by blood products. However, it has been established that some of those who contracted nvCJD in the UK and France had donated blood previously. White-cell removal has not yet been introduced in the UK, where it would cost £20 million annually. The Department of Health, said Dr Murphy, had been "very supportive" in allocating the funding necessary for new initiatives. "There has been a huge element of catching up to do" and training and quality assurance had been under-funded in the past.
The changes will add 15 per cent to the cost of a unit of red blood cells, which currently costs £62. The additional costs have not yet been passed on to the hospitals which receive the blood products.