Mad-cow restrictions
would limit blood supply

The Blood Bank says the proposal
would drop 2,000 donors here

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Staff and news service reports

A federal advisory panel yesterday recommended tighter restrictions on blood donors to protect the country's blood supply from mad cow disease.

The recommendations came despite warnings from health officials that restrictions -- barring people who have spent certain periods of time in Britain or Europe, where mad cow disease has been found -- would cause blood shortages.

Robyn Yim, president and medical director of the Blood Bank of Hawaii, said that as long as the blood bank has 46,000 pints a year, it will meet the state's needs. But she said if the ban goes into effect, it could cut Hawaii's donor base by about 2,000 people.

"We're very alarmed and have been watching it quite a while," Yim said. "It's getting harder and harder to meet the (demand for blood) ... and when they expand the criteria, oh boy ... Internally we have been meeting and figuring out outreach and how to get more donors."

While one estimate says the pool of eligible donors would decrease by 8 percent, Yim said the military could see a drop-off of 20 percent or more because of extensive travel. "The general consensus is that the military would be affected much more than the nonmilitary community," she said.

The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, estimates the proposal could reduce America's donor base by about 5 percent. The agency also said the proposal would reduce the risk of mad cow disease entering the blood supply by up to 91 percent.

There have been no identified cases of mad cow disease in the United States, either in cattle or in humans. And there is no evidence that the human variety can be spread through blood transfusions, but the panel made its recommendation to cut any risk of such an occurrence.

Although the FDA is not bound by advisory committee recommendations, it usually follows them.

In a 10-7 vote yesterday, the subcommittee recommended the following people be banned from donating blood:

>> Donors who have spent a cumulative three months or more in Britain from 1980 through the end of 1996.

>> Those who have lived or traveled for a cumulative five years or more in any other European country.

>> American military personnel and dependents who have spent six months or more on a base in Europe between 1980 through the end of 1996.

>> People who have received blood transfusions in Britain between 1980 to the present.

Current regulations ban donors who have lived in Britain for six months or in some European countries for 10 years.

Joe Pelot, manager of Sera-Tec Biologicals, a private plasma center off Nimitz Highway, said he did not expect the proposed regulations to have a significant impact on the center, which pays donors for plasma.

"It (current FDA regulations) hasn't impacted our operation to any significant amount," he said.

But he said it all depends on what type of regulations are approved. "It could have a large impact or small impact. We just have to wait," he said.

Although the FDA has said it would take about a year for the new restrictions to take effect, Yim said the blood bank would impose them as soon as the agency issues preliminary guidelines, which could be within three weeks.

The action comes as the blood bank weathers a summertime lag in donors who are more active with family and travel, Yim said.

The blood bank supplies Hawaii's 19 nonmilitary hospitals with red blood cells, plasma and platelets for mothers giving birth, cancer patients and others, she said.

FDA officials are concerned that people who have traveled or lived in Europe, particularly in Britain, may have eaten beef contaminated by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

Studies have shown the disease can be transmitted to humans in meat and, years later, cause a brain disease called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD. Britain was the center of an outbreak of mad cow disease, and at least 91 people there developed vCJD.

The panel's recommendation came after the American Red Cross said it planned to impose tighter restrictions in September. The Hawaii chapter of the Red Cross does not collect blood.