§ Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 27 March (WA 59), what is the "strong epidemiological evidence to suggest that classic CJD is not transmitted through blood"; which of the many variants of "classic CJD" this evidence applies to; and whether they will place copies of the relevant papers in the Library of the House. [HL1864]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)The following, peer reviewed articles, relate to this subject and will be placed in the Library:
T F G Esmonde et al, 1993, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and blood transfusion, Lancet 341; 205–207;
P Brown, 1995, Can Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease be transmitted by transfusion?, Current Opinion in Haematology, vol 2, pp 472–477;
C M van Duijn et al, 1998, Case-control study of risk factors of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Europe during 1993–95, Lancet 351: 1081–1085;
32WARicketts MN et al: Is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease transmitted in blood?, Energ Infect Dids 1997:3, 155–166; and
Heye Net al: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and blood transfusion, Lancet 1994; 343; 298–299.
These studies cover all types of CJD. Sporadic (classic) CJD, however, accounts for some 85 per cent of non-variant cases.
The European Committee for Proprietory Medicinal Products (CPMP) reviewed the evidence in December 1995 and advised that there was no experimental or epidemiological evidence that classical CJD is transmitted by blood transfusions or plasma-derived products. A recall policy was not considered justified for plasma derived products from plasma pools incorporating a donation implicated for classical CJD. It reaffirmed that advice in March 1997. CPMP concluded on the basis of currently available information from epidemiological and experimental studies that there is no scientific justification for changing from the current CPMP position on classical CJD. CPMP further stated there to be no evidence that classical CJD is transmitted via blood or plasma derived products. This issue was also subsequently considered by the US Food and Drugs Administration, which came to the same conclusion.