- Budge's Links to the Tainted Arkansas Prison Blood Story
- Blood Trail by Michael Sullivan (Galster)
- BLOOD TRAIL -- Clinton
- BLOOD TRAIL -- Timeline
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FDA Considers Mad Cow Precautions -- Associated Press By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical WriterJanuary 19, 2001 WASHINGTON (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation - --
The government is considering whether to prohibit Americans who lived in France and certain other parts of Europe from donating blood, as a safeguard against mad cow disease.No one knows if the human version of mad cow disease could be spread by blood, although some experiments with animals suggest it might.
As a precaution, the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 banned anyone who lived for at least six months in Britain since 1980 from donating blood. That was when an epidemic of mad cow disease struck British cattle, and eating infected beef has since been blamed for a new version of a human brain-destroyer, called ``new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease,'' that has stricken more than 80 Britons.
But mad cow disease now is spreading through cattle in France, Germany and numerous other parts of Europe, and the new CJD has struck at least 3 people in France.
``There is enormous scientific uncertainty here. ... It may turn out that this is not a risk,'' acknowledged Dr. Bernadine Healy, Red Cross president. But ``it is only logical, once you have made the step with regard to the U.K. _ is it not reasonable to extend that to Western Europe?''So the FDA is debating whether to expand its blood donor ban to anyone who lived for at least six months in any country hit by mad cow disease. The agency's scientific advisers on mad cow disease, known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, will vote on the question Thursday.
BSE has not been found in American cattle. While regular CJD, the kind not connected to infected beef, does strike Americans, federal health officials insist no Americans have been diagnosed with the new variant CJD.
The American Red Cross, which collects about half the nation's blood supply, is urging the expanded blood ban, even though it estimates that doing so could cut donations by 6 percent.
``There is enormous scientific uncertainty here. ... It may turn out that this is not a risk,'' acknowledged Dr. Bernadine Healy, Red Cross president. But ``it is only logical, once you have made the step with regard to the U.K. _ is it not reasonable to extend that to Western Europe?''
On the other side are blood banks that argue expanding the ban immediately would cut about 175,000 lifesaving blood donations at a time when worries about blood shortages are rising. Blood donations are dropping about 1 percent a year even as hospitals' demand for blood is rising by the same amount.
Officials from America's Blood Centers, which collect the other half of the nation's blood, will ask FDA ``to balance the theoretical risks from mad cow disease against the real risk of not having enough blood for the 4.5 million patients who receive blood transfusions every year.''
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
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LIDDY DOLE'S RED CROSS RUNS AMOKBLOOD TRAIL: THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 1 -- HOW BLOOD, THE 'GIFT OF LIFE,' BECAME A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September 24, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 19:45:35 PDT by Wallaby (348)
BLOOD TRAIL: THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 2 - THE LOOSE WAY THE FDA REGULATES BLOOD INDUSTRY Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September 25, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 20:45:42 PDT by Wallaby (347)
BLOOD TRAIL: THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 3 -- FEAR OF AIDS SPURS CHANGE Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: TUESDAY September 26, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 21:00:40 PDT by Wallaby (346)
BLOOD TRAIL: THE BLOOD BROKERS PART 4 -- RED CROSS: FROM DISASTER RELIEF TO BLOOD Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: WEDNESDAY September 27, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 21:44:11 PDT by Wallaby (345)
BLOOD TRAIL: BLOOD BROKERS, PART 5, LAST IN SERIES -- AMERICA: THE OPEC OF THE GLOBAL PLASMA Source: PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Published: September 28, 1989 Author: Gilbert M. Gaul Posted on 07/12/1999 22:14:30 PDT by Wallaby (344)
Blood money: what Red Cross donors didn’t know (1976) Red Cross Going to Refuse Money Raised by Hillary Protest Banner Auction
Red Cross Going to Refuse Money Raised by Hillary Protest Banner Auction
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The entire cattle herds of Europe are having a party tonight!
a bump and a drip!
How 'bout those fonts, eh?
There's alot of mad cows in TEXAS (& everywhere else in the red zone) tonight. Mad cause of all them damn loud partying cowboys! Yeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhaaaaaahhh!
You're my favorite A5!
a special bump for all of your hard work!
> How 'bout those fonts, eh?
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
This stuff really scares me. Please put me on your flag list in case I miss one of the posts. I want to follow this very carefully. Thanks.
You got it.
You might be interested in this ... as well as the "Special Report" section from the UK within this article on Patients' Right to Know of Infection
Thanks, Askel.
Blood is a prime suspect in the transmission of this disease, although there is strong evidence that it can be transmitted by the re-use of surgical instruments, even those thought to be sterilized.
There is no test to detect it, and, of course, there is no cure. We're dealing with a whole new type of killer out there, and given the fact that nobody knows the incubation time before symptoms set in, we don't even know how widespread the disease is.
Initially, the agent was thought to be a slow virus due to the unusually long incubation period between the time of exposure to the pathogen and the onset of symptoms. Further research, however, has indicated that this agent differs significantly from viruses and other conventional agents. Whereas viruses and other known infectious agents contain nucleic acids which house a cell's genetic material, researchers have been unable to identify any nucleic acids in the CJD agent. Additionally, the chemical and physical procedures that inactivate most viruses have proved ineffective in decreasing the infectivity of the CJD pathogen. In contrast, the procedures that degrade protein have been found to inactivate the pathogen. Accordingly, a new theory regarding the transmissible agent has emerged and recently gained widespread acceptability. This theory holds that the transmissible agent is neither a virus nor other previously known infectious agent, but rather an unconventional agent consisting of protein. This newly-discovered pathogen is called a "prion", short for " proteinaceous infectious particle". Prions are thought to transform normal, benign protein molecules into infectious, deadly ones by altering the shape of the healthy molecules to the dangerous conformation. What is CJD?
A bump and a moo!
E-I-E-I-Oooooowwww
Mwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Extreme mooing?!
In lieu of a four-footed snowboard experience, it proves quite cathartic!
Poetry in moootion.
Cows do not get upset all that easily, but even these gentle creatures can be provoked beyond their endurance. Then they get REALLY mad!
Udderly exciting!
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