Hospitals use US blood to cut CJD risk

British hospitals are to import US blood to use in operations on young children because of fears of contamination with the human form of BSE, it was reported today.

The National Blood Service (NBS) plans to use US supplies for children under six after research showed that the agent which causes variant Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is more easily transmitted than previously thought.

The safeguards are being brought in for children born after 1995 because they are unlikely to have been exposed to the vCJD infection by eating BSE-contaminated meat.

Health chiefs would ideally like to give "lower-risk" supplies to all age groups, but cannot afford to do so because of the costs involved in buying up stocks from countries still deemed to be "safe".

While there is so far no evidence that anybody infected with the vCJD virus has passed it on via a blood transfusion, the fact that the extra measures are felt necessary may undermine public confidence.

The move by the NBS, which follows a similar strategy announced in Scotland last month, will mean that US frozen plasma will be used in operations on all new-born babies and young children. Plasma is given to those born prematurely or having major surgery.

Research has suggested that plasma - the liquid component of blood - and red cells may be routes for infection of vCJD. Previously, the risk was thought to be only from white cells, which are removed before blood is used.

At present, there is no way of telling whether blood products carry the vCJD virus until an infected patient shows the symptoms. But tests on animals, reported recently in the Journal of General Virology, show that one in six given blood from infected sheep appear to have developed symptoms.

Unlike most US blood supplies, in which members of the public are paid for making donations, the plasma for children will come from donations made free because of fears that payment attracts donors from groups with a higher risk of infection. The plasma will also come from single rather than pooled units, so that any supply found to be contaminated can be identified.

So far there have been 122 confirmed cases of vCJD in the UK, compared with six in France, and only one in the US. Public health minister Hazel Blears said last night: "It is never possible to guarantee 100 per cent safety, but we will continue to take advice from our expert committees on steps to minimise the risks."