The Blood Transfusion Service Board is to survey its donors to see how many have lived in the UK, particularly during the late 1980s, following the recent discovery of a case of new variant CJD here.
Mr Martin Hynes, the board's CEO, said, however, that there may be so many people who have been to the UK that it would be too wide and therefore impractical. New variant CJD has been linked to the consumption of BSE-contaminated beef.
Dr Emer Lawlor, deputy national medical director of the National Haemovigilance Office, commented: "We have to balance the theoretical risk against the real risk of not getting blood when we need it."
The 1996 census showed that 8 per cent of Irish people had lived in the UK for a year or more at some time.
Mr Hynes said the emphasis needed to be on the food chain, on British beef, particularly in the burger fast-food outlets. An expert group on CJD was giving every assistance and advice. He stressed that CJD was not contagious.
To reduce any possibility that CJD might be spread by blood transfusions, the BTSB last year introduced a new processing step for blood, removing all the white cells from each unit. While the risk had not been proven, the BTSB had invested about £3 million as a further safeguard of its products.
The BTSB yesterday launched its summer appeal for blood donors and hopes to recruit 10,000 new donors between now and the end of the year. Its annual report, published yesterday, shows that 18,000 new donors gave blood in 1998.
Mr Hynes said the BTSB was entering the time of year in which blood supplies were at their lowest, particularly as many regular donors would be going on holiday. He appealed for donors who had broken the habit of giving blood to rejoin the ranks of donors.
He said that while blood had been associated with life-threatening virus infections, trauma and even scandals, transfusion had never been safer. There was no risk in donating. Sterile disposable equipment was used for each individual.
The annual report says a commitment was made last August to discontinue the importation of blood. Mr Hynes said they were back to being self-sufficient, using local voluntary donors. They had maintained supplies to the 67 Irish hospitals which used blood on a 24-hour, seven-day week basis. They were not using plasma.
The report said people who attended clinics were sometimes deferred from donating for various reasons. While the BTSB regretted that some potential donors were not accepted, the safety of the supply was paramount. Most deferrals were temporary.
On the Anti-D HCV programme, the report says that to date 67,456 people who may have received an infectious or potentially infectious batch of Anti-D, and their partners and children, had been tested. Of these, 66,425 had tested negative for hepatitis C antibodies.
Last year, the BTSB launched a campaign to trace women who had not come forward for testing. Some may have changed address, their name or may have emigrated.
The report says the HIV screening programme, which started in October 1997, offered testing to transfusion recipients who were transfused before the introduction of HIV screening. All 2,019 samples screened tested negative.
The BTSB had an expenditure of £31 million last year, an increase of £3.5 million on the previous year. This reflected the continuing costs of implementing the board's reorganisation plan and the costs of the recipient-tracing programmes.