08.dec.06
ITV News (UK)
http://www.itv.com/news/britain_787e60b23fc1b0cd542d2e33366ccad4.html
A second wave of variant CJD cases could be on the way, scientists have warned.
Professor John Collinge has established the human form of mad cow disease can be easily passed on through blood and more easily transmitted than eating contaminated meat.
The specialist has been tracking the progress of 24 people who accidentally received infected blood transfusions.
Three of them have now died and thousands more could be at risk because nobody knows how many infected donors have given blood in the past or are still donating now.
Prof Collinge, from the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit, was quoted as saying, "That three individuals from this small group of people that we know to have been exposed through blood transfusion have already developed vCJD infection suggests that the infection may be efficiently passed by this route, so the risk to remaining individuals is likely to be substantial. A national tonsil tissue screening study being performed by the Health Protection Agency may soon give estimates of the number of people who are silently infected with prions. This information is vital for public health planning given the relative ease with which prions seem to be passed on by blood transfusion."