§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when the revised approach to the Better Blood Transfusion Strategy will be published; [163478]
(2) what progress has been made in implementing the Better Blood Transfusion Strategy. [163479]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonSince the publication of the Health Service Circular 2002/009, "Better Blood Transfusion—Appropriate Use of Blood", in July 2002 we have seen some improvements including greater participation in the serious hazards of transfusion reporting system and an increase in the number of hospital transfusion committees. As indicated by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health in his1610W statement to the House on 16 March, the Chief Medical Officer is producing a revised approach to better blood transfusion and work on this is under way.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to identify whether there is a causal connection between the donor and recipient of the blood transfusion where a variant vCJD transmission may have occurred. [163613]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonA paper by Llewelyn CA.et al (2004); Lancet; Vol.363, pp 417–421 reported more details of the possible link between a donor and a recipient of blood where variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) transmission may have occurred. The paper has been placed in the Library. This paper concluded that human prion diseases, including vCJD, may be transmissible through blood transfusion but that through the study only of natural disease can evidence of an actual iatrogenic (caused by medical examination or treatment) risk be identified. With the current extent of scientific knowledge, it is unlikely it will be possible to prove that there was a definite causal link between donor and recipient.