Traces Of Mad Cow In Donated Blood Products

A man in the U.K. who died of an unrelated disease had traces of Mad Cow Disease after being treated with blood-clotting proteins from a donor.

By: WKRG Staff | WKRG
Published: February 17, 2009

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LONDON (AP) - British health experts say they have the first
evidence of a hemophiliac contracting mad cow disease from
contaminated blood products.
The Health Protection Agency says it found evidence of variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the spleen of an elderly man who had
died of an unrelated condition. The man had shown no symptoms of
mad cow, but he had been treated with a blood-clotting protein
taken from a donor who later developed symptoms.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is incurable and basically eats holes
in the brain.
Britain tightened rules governing the handling of blood products
ten years ago in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading.
The director of the Health Protection Agency's center for
infections says the finding reinforces the importance of those
precautionary measures.