MPs call for risk assessment review of safety of UK blood supply

The government should order a full review of the UK blood supply to gauge whether it contains a significant risk of the degenerative brain disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) being passed on, MPs have said.

The recommendation came from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in a new report that follows the committee’s recent inquiry into the issue. The report criticises the government for its “casual attitude” to transmission of the disease and for not remaining vigilant.1

The disease, sometimes called the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow disease,” emerged after widespread exposure to BSE prions in the late 1980s and early 1990s through contaminated …