THE RISK of Irish people contracting variant CJD (vCJD) after receiving UK plasma-derived products has been described as “remote but still a risk” by the National Haemophilia Council.
It also emerged yesterday that a test for vCJD could be available by summer if trials are successful.
The council said a haemophiliac who died in the UK last year had evidence of vCJD infection. The man, in his 70s, did not die from vCJD but experts believe he was infected with vCJD from UK plasma-derived product known as Factor VIII.
He may have received the product from a batch that included plasma from a donor who later died of vCJD, the human form of BSE or mad cow disease.
Haemophilia and related bleeding disorders are caused by a lack of clotting factors and are treated by products containing clotting factor concentrate such as Factor VIII.
Ireland was the first country in the world to transfer all haemophiliacs to a synthetic clotting concentrate from 1997 onwards.
There have been 167 cases of vCJD in the UK and four in Ireland since the link between eating infected meat and a new variant of CJD was made in the mid-1990s.
Some nine people who died of vCJD in the UK had donated blood for the manufacture of clotting factor concentrates.
Dr Barry White, director of the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders said it was important to note that there had been no clinical cases of vCJD in haemophiliacs.
“There are many thousands of people in the UK who’ve received factor concentrates where some of the donors who contributed to the concentrates have developed variant CJD and none of these patients have developed symptoms,” he said.
Some 50 Irish patients had received UK plasma-derived products, he said. “However, only two patients actually received product that was subsequently identified as being at risk of variant CJD . . . where the donor subsequently developed CJD,” Dr White said. Both had received the product while living in the UK.
“The significance of the current finding is unclear but we are adopting the precautionary principle and interpreting this as evidence that variant CJD can be transmitted by clotting factor concentrates.”
Letters have been sent to the 50 patients informing them of developments, and to all people with haemophilia and related bleeding disorders.
A helpline (1800-200849) opened at St James’s Hospital, Dublin yesterday.
Two meetings have also been organised for people with concerns, on February 27th in Cork and February 28th in Dublin.
Prof John Bonnar, chairman the National Haemophilia Council, said the risk, “on the evidence available at the moment, is remote but is a risk. What was theoretical is now a practical risk so it’s an additional concern . . . an additional stress”.
Meanwhile, Dr William Murphy of the Blood Transfusion Service said there was a “very real prospect” that a test for vCJD could be available by the summer.
If successful, it would have the ability to detect the vCJD prion in people who had not developed the disease but may be able to transmit it in the blood.
It is being trialled in France and the UK at the moment. This test would cost the Blood Transfusion Service about €3 million a year.
