Brussels, 28/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the United States took the decision to ban, from October 2002, all imports or collection of blood from people having resided more than five years in Europe, to prevent risks of the transmission of BSE variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The details of the decision, published on Monday as a draft by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Federal Health Authority), will be finalised by the end of 2001 and implemented in time to enable the blood collection services to prepare, said the FDA. On 31 May 2002 there will be a ban on the collection of blood from donors having lived in the United Kingdom more than three months from early-1980 to end-1996, or five years in France between 1980 and today, or then again six months on an American base in Europe. From 31 October 2002, blood from anyone having spent more than five years in Europe between 1980 and today will not be allowed to be collected or used in the United States. "The recommendations are aimed at excluding donors who may have been exposed to the human variant of BSE", says the FDA in a press release. "It is essential that healthy people give blood", added Doctor Bernard Schwetz, Deputy-Director of the FDA, for whom the measure increases safety while preserving the provision of the blood necessary for the running of American hospitals.
The decision of the FDA goes beyond the recommendations made on 28 June by a committee of experts on the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These experts, referred the case by the FDA, recommended a ban on the collection of blood from people having resided over ten years in France, Portugal or Ireland since 1980 or six months in the United Kingdom from 1980 to 1996. But the American Red Cross goes furthest with the adoption from September of a policy banning the collection of blood from donors having resided in Europe for over six months since 1980 or over three months in the United Kingdom since 1980. These measures are being taken as a pure precaution as, "to date, no epidemiological data have suggested that nvCJD (human variant of the mad cow disease) has been able to be transmitted by blood, blood products or plasma derivatives", the experts consulted by the FDA wrote in their report.
The measures taken by the American agency were anticipated by the main American blood collection bodies, which have already taken measures to do without, from the autumn of 2001, imports of blood from European donors or donors having stayed in Europe. Thus, the American Red Cross (ARC) has launched a blood collection campaign to compensate, from end September already, for the provision of European blood which represents a quarter of the blood requirements in New York hospitals. The ARC provides close to 50% of American requirements. America's Blood Centres also undertook last week to take all necessary steps to void a shortage of blood in new York. The metropolis with a population of eight million is the only American region chronically deficient in blood products.
In addition, the American Health Authority has revealed a large-scale plan aimed at enhancing the monitoring mechanism, stepping-up research and developing the existing inspection services to prevent BSE and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These measures will be accompanied by a doubling, by the end of 2002, of the budgetary means allocated to research into BSE (or close to $50 million), Creutzfeldt-Jakob and other TSEs (work on prions, the crossing of species barriers, the design of screening tests among animals and men and medical treatment.