ME patients face a ban on UK blood donations
By Michelle Roberts Health Reporter, BBC News - October 7, 2010
Patients with ME will no longer donate blood in the UK under new safety guidelines.
Officials say the ban which starts from November 1, was adopted to protect the health of patients with ME - also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
However, the ME Association said that the change is motivated by concerns that disease could be caused by a virus similar to HIV is transmissible through blood.
Before the ban, patients ME was allowed to donate blood if they were in a submissive stage of the disease.
But the cyclical nature of "relapse-remission" of this chronic condition means that people could get sick of again.
Blood and Transplant Unit of the NHS (NHS UK) says that the ban would be "a precaution to protect the safety of the donor to ensure that their condition does not suffer deterioration due to the donation of blood."
say that this change will make policy on blood donations with the ME line with any other terms or conditions subject to relapse neurological disorders of unknown or uncertain, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
But the ME Association believes that there is another reason for the ban - to protect recipients of blood from a blood disease potentially source.
Although they agree with the ban, saying that the public should be aware of the grounds surrounding it.
Experts do not know what the cause of ME.
But U.S. scientists have recently linked the condition with a retrovirus - known as XMRV - having found that retrovirus in the blood of many patients.
Viral Infection
Whittemore Peterson Institute's team found XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) in 67% of ME patients compared to 4% in general population.
However, since the discovery in 2009, published in the journal Science, other research teams, including experts in the United Kingdom, have not been able to demonstrate this link.
A representative Unit of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "At the moment there is no epidemiological evidence of a link between XMRV e CFS nel Regno Unito”.
Nonostante la natura parziale dell’evidenza, l’Associazione ME dice che è sufficiente per consigliare la cautela e raccomandare un divieto sulle donazioni del sangue da pazienti ME.
L’Associazione Americana di Banche del Sangue ha fatto scattare un piano simile di divieti sulle donazioni a Giugno di questo anno come misura ad interim fin quando non si sarà fatta chiarezza sul vero rischio della trasmissione dell’XMRV tramite trasfusione.
Il consulente medico dell’Associazione ME, il Dr. Charles Sheperd, ha detto che questo approccio è ben ponderato.
"Nell’attuale state of uncertainty about the possible viral link, a ban is a perfectly sensible measure to take, if it was caused by a retrovirus. "
He said the UK ban should not leave too big a hole in donations blood.
"Even though people with ME often willing to donate blood, constitute a minority among the thousands of donations that the NHS receives every year."
Seven thousand units of blood per day are used to meet only request of the Blood and Transplant NHS.
The ban on donations from patients with ME applies to all four i Servizi del Sangue del Regno Unito.
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