'Small NI risk' from CJD donor

Donor gave blood in 1987, then developed CJD

A "very small number" of haemophiliacs in Northern Ireland may have been given blood products from a donor who developed vCJD, a hospital director has said.

Dr Ken Fullerton, Medical director of Belfast City Hospital, Northern Ireland's regional haemophilia centre, gave his assessment of the risk to patients after it emerged a donor gave blood twice in Scotland in 1987 and developed vCJD two years ago.

Haemophiliacs in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have been told by letter they may have been treated with a clotting factor blood product from the suspect batch.

There is no diagnostic test for the incurable brain disease vCJD - variant Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease - which has, so far, killed 117 people in the UK.

vCJD is an incurable brain disease

Dr Fullerton said all of the patients in the province who received V111 clotting factor from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service between 1987-89 have been contacted and advised of the situation.

He said: "Of these local patients, only a very small number were exposed to the implicated Scottish batch."

He said it was felt right all patients who received the Scottish product, whether the suspect batch or not, had the right to decide whether they wished to know of their possible exposure.

Dr Fullerton said there was no evidence anywhere in the world that variant CJD could be transmitted by blood or blood products.

But he said all haemophilia patients who were contacted by letter had been offered counselling from their specialist haemophilia consultant, he said.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the letters were posted out earlier this week.

Some patients have already been to the hospital to find out if they had been given the implicated batch, while others said they did not want to know and some were still making up their minds whether they wanted the information, she said.

Executive statement

On Wednesday, the Scottish Executive, Haemophilia Centres in Scotland and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service issued a joint statement confirming that a donor was found to have vCJD.

There is still no evidence anywhere in the world that either classic or variant CJD has been transmitted by blood transfusion

Professor Ian Franklin

It was reported to the executive in November 2001.

An executive spokesman refused to confirm how many patients were involved in the scare on the grounds of "clinical confidentiality".

Professor Ian Franklin, Medical Director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), said there should be no cause for alarm.

But he said the UK blood services were taking a number of precautionary measures.

Plasma has been imported from the USA and Germany for the past four years as a precaution against vCJD for the manufacture of plasma products such as immunoglobulin, albumin and clotting factors, he said.

Patients' concern

Phyllis McLeod from Wemyss Bay was one of those who received a letter warning of the CJD scare.

Why did they sit on this for so long, for two years? They are talking about one specific donor, but is it going to come out that 100 donors had CJD

Phyllis McLeod former patient

Ms McLeod is not a haemophiliac but contracted Hepatitis C following a hysterectomy in 1979.

She said she believed that others may have donated blood while suffering from CJD.

"Why did they sit on this for so long, for two years? They are talking about one specific donor, but is it going to come out that 100 donors had CJD?" she said.

Bruce Norvelle, of the Black Isle, also received a letter telling him he may have been treated with infected blood products.

He said his first reaction was 'not again'.

"As a haemophiliac this is not an unfamiliar story.

"This is the third time we've been at the front line of a major disease disaster and it just shows how unsafe these blood products were."