Brian Edward Moore (Brian.Edward.Moore at dartmouth.edu) wrote:
: I heard from a science writer at the New York Times that prions had
: gotten into the donor blood supply.
A recent review article in TRANSFUSION 34(1994)915-928 deals comprehensively
with this issue and the possible countermeasurements as long as now specific
detection is possible. The auther stresses the fact that the final verdict
about the infectious agent (slow RNA virus versus prion) is not out
and one should use caution when applying the preliminary knowledge to
possible actions in blood donor screening.
A very interesting and important issue, though.
Dr W A Flegel
Dept Transfusion Medicine
University of Ulm, Germany
