How many other veterans and service members are not permitted to donate blood? Why?
What Happened to Mad Cow Disease?
If you were around in the '90s, you might remember the scare over mad cow disease, but it seems to have quieted down in the intervening years. What happened?...
[Note: I updated the question from "veterans" to "Veterans and service members" on June 6, 2015 - 71st anniversary of D Day - Operation Overlord]
[update May 18, 2018] As of 2017, worldwide 230 people, roughly 180 in the UK have been infected with vCJD and 4 people in the USA have been infected.
Mad Cow and VCJD are nervous system diseases which are based on diseased prions [not the car]. Diseased prions binds to proteins and converts them to prions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxojz6grwcU
Thanks to 1SG (Join to see) for alerting me that "there is progress in the development of methods to detect misfolded proteins in the bloodstream" I did research and found the following at an NIH site.
As this article informs us there has been progress in control groups testing of "developed blood tests to detect prion." The article states that there are plans to "validate their methods using larger samples sizes."
Hopefully this process will be successful to detect whether or not we have been infected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Variant (vCJD); "Mad Cow Disease."
"Prion diseases are a group of rare, fatal brain diseases that affect animals and humans. They are caused by normally harmless proteins that become abnormal and form clumps in the brain. One form, called variant CJD (vCJD), is associated with eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow” disease.
People may have vCJD for years before symptoms—such as depression, hallucinations, moving difficulties, and dementia—appear. These “silent” carriers have small amounts of prions in their bloodstreams and can transmit the disease to others via blood transfusions. The only current method to diagnose vCJD is to perform a biopsy or a postmortem analysis of brain tissue. Thus, a noninvasive test to detect prions in blood is a medical priority.
Two research groups recently developed blood tests to detect prions. The results appeared in a pair of papers published on December 21, 2016, in Science Translational Medicine. One of the groups, led by Dr. Claudio Soto of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
Prions are scarce in the bloodstream and difficult to measure. Both teams developed methods to amplify the prions in blood samples using a technique called protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). PMCA relies on the characteristic nature of prions to cause certain healthy proteins to clump abnormally and convert into prions.
Soto’s group first combined healthy proteins with known concentrations of infectious vCJD prions. They intermittently agitated these mixtures with sound waves. The agitation helped break the prions into smaller chunks. This increased the number of prions that could then convert healthy proteins into prions. Using this method, the scientists were able to detect more than a billion-fold dilution of prions using an anti-prion antibody.
The scientists next tested whether the technique could be used to detect prions in blood samples from 14 people with vCJD and 153 controls. The controls included healthy people as well as people with different neurological or neurodegenerative disorders, including sporadic CJD, the most common form of CJD. The assay flagged all the vCJD samples correctly.
In the second paper, a French research group described a similar approach testing a blinded panel of blood samples. That team identified 18 vCJD patients in a group of 256 samples.
“Our findings, which need to be confirmed in further studies, suggest that our method of detection could be useful for the noninvasive diagnosis of this disease in pre-symptomatic individuals,” Soto says. Early diagnosis would allow potential therapies to be tested before substantial brain damage occurred. This technique would also allow blood contaminated with prions to be detected and removed from the blood supply.
Both teams are now working to validate their methods using larger samples sizes.
―by Anita Ramanathan
nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/new-method-accurately-detects-prions-blood
~793507:LTC Bill Koski] CW5 (Join to see) MSG Brad Sand SGM Steve Wettstein SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SP5 Mark Kuzinski SrA Christopher Wright PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO1 John Miller SP5 Robert Ruck SPC (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill SN Greg Wright Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey TSgt Joe C. Cpl Joshua Caldwell SGT Michael Thorin SP5 Dave (Shotgun) Shockley SPC Margaret Higgins
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt (Join to see) SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert George SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC (Join to see)SPC Margaret Higgins Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Craig Cheltenham
Based on the American Red Cross from June 30, 2021
https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-alphabetical/eligibility-reference-material.html
It seems that being stationed or being a dependent in Germany, Turkey and other duty stations in Europe [outside of the Great Britain, Ireland and France [for 5 years or more] has been lifted from the prohibition for donating blood lists.
At this time, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) donor eligibility rules related to vCJD are as follows:
You are not eligible to donate if
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in any country in the United Kingdom (UK),
Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any of the countries listed below:
France Ireland Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2001, in France or Ireland.
Hopefully in the next few years the blood tests will be available to test us for vCJD. It has been a long time coming.
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones
Based on the American Red Cross from June 30, 2021
https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-alphabetical/eligibility-reference-material.html
It seems that being stationed or being a dependent in Germany, Turkey and other duty stations in Europe [outside of the Great Britain, Ireland and France [for 5 years or more] has been lifted from the prohibition for donating blood lists.
At this time, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) donor eligibility rules related to vCJD are as follows:
You are not eligible to donate if
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in any country in the United Kingdom (UK),
Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any of the countries listed below:
France Ireland Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2001, in France or Ireland.
FYI CPT (Join to see) LTC Paul Labrador CPT Barbara Smith MSgt Ronald Stacy BG (Join to see) COL Mikel J. Burroughs SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Leo Bell SSgt (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SSgt Robert Marx TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT Robert George
Thanks for making us aware that you knew one "fellow officer in a neighboring department died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Variant (vCJD)"
FYI Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SSgt Brian Brakke Sgt Arthur Caesar SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Based on the American Red Cross from June 30, 2021
https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-alphabetical/eligibility-reference-material.html
It seems that being stationed or being a dependent in Germany, Turkey and other duty stations in Europe [outside of the Great Britain, Ireland and France [for 5 years or more] has been lifted from the prohibition for donating blood lists.
At this time, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) donor eligibility rules related to vCJD are as follows:
You are not eligible to donate if
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in any country in the United Kingdom (UK),
Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any of the countries listed below:
France Ireland Channel Islands England Falkland Islands Gibraltar Isle of Man Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2001, in France or Ireland.
FYI LTC John Griscom LTC Wayne Brandon CPT Jim Gallagher] 1SG John Millan MSgt John McGowanMSgt David M. SSgt Boyd HerrstSSG Diane R.SPC Andrew RossSSG Donald H "Don" BatesSP5 Jerry MuchaSGT John Meredith Sgt (Join to see) LCpl Emanuel W. SPC William WeedmanPO3 Steven Sherrill LTC Bill Koski SGM Steve Wettstein
1. GREED was the basic problem in BSE.
2. The root cause of disease is sin from a Biblical perspective. It is part of God's judgement on fallen creation.
3. Breeding of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, dogs and cats is not problematic. Improving strains of grain has been common for millennia and is many cases was not problematic.
4. Introduction of man-made fats to extend shelf-life was found to be bad long after it was introduced as low cost product life extension GREED again.
I could go on but enough said for today :-)
What do you think? COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon
I was stationed in Bamberg from 1981 to 1984.
{There is a potential for hope based on a couple promising studies.]
1. According to the Red Cross current restrictions for blood donations based on vCJD [human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)]
"From 1980 through 1990 - Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
From 1980 through 1996 - Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy or Greece.
You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, to present, in any combination of country(ies) in Europe, including
in the UK from 1980 through 1996 as listed above"
2. Below is the background:
Thanks to SFC William Squires for alerting me that "there is progress in the development of methods to detect misfolded proteins in the bloodstream" I did research and found the following at an NIH site.
As this article informs us there has been progress in control groups testing of "developed blood tests to detect prion." The article states that there are plans to "validate their methods using larger samples sizes."
Hopefully this process will be successful to detect whether or not we have been infected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Variant (vCJD); "Mad Cow Disease."
"Prion diseases are a group of rare, fatal brain diseases that affect animals and humans. They are caused by normally harmless proteins that become abnormal and form clumps in the brain. One form, called variant CJD (vCJD), is associated with eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow” disease.
People may have vCJD for years before symptoms—such as depression, hallucinations, moving difficulties, and dementia—appear. These “silent” carriers have small amounts of prions in their bloodstreams and can transmit the disease to others via blood transfusions. The only current method to diagnose vCJD is to perform a biopsy or a postmortem analysis of brain tissue. Thus, a noninvasive test to detect prions in blood is a medical priority.
Two research groups recently developed blood tests to detect prions. The results appeared in a pair of papers published on December 21, 2016, in Science Translational Medicine. One of the groups, led by Dr. Claudio Soto of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
Prions are scarce in the bloodstream and difficult to measure. Both teams developed methods to amplify the prions in blood samples using a technique called protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). PMCA relies on the characteristic nature of prions to cause certain healthy proteins to clump abnormally and convert into prions.
Soto’s group first combined healthy proteins with known concentrations of infectious vCJD prions. They intermittently agitated these mixtures with sound waves. The agitation helped break the prions into smaller chunks. This increased the number of prions that could then convert healthy proteins into prions. Using this method, the scientists were able to detect more than a billion-fold dilution of prions using an anti-prion antibody.
The scientists next tested whether the technique could be used to detect prions in blood samples from 14 people with vCJD and 153 controls. The controls included healthy people as well as people with different neurological or neurodegenerative disorders, including sporadic CJD, the most common form of CJD. The assay flagged all the vCJD samples correctly.
In the second paper, a French research group described a similar approach testing a blinded panel of blood samples. That team identified 18 vCJD patients in a group of 256 samples.
“Our findings, which need to be confirmed in further studies, suggest that our method of detection could be useful for the noninvasive diagnosis of this disease in pre-symptomatic individuals,” Soto says. Early diagnosis would allow potential therapies to be tested before substantial brain damage occurred. This technique would also allow blood contaminated with prions to be detected and removed from the blood supply.
Both teams are now working to validate their methods using larger samples sizes.
―by Anita Ramanathan
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/new-method-accurately-detects-prions-blood
FYI Debbie Pomeroy Cloud Kathlean KeeslerSGT Tim Fridley Tim DeGroat Michael Horne SSG David Andrews SGT Mark Halmrast CW5 Jack Cardwell Cynthia CroftSPC Gary Welch SGT Rick Colburn SMSgt Tom Burns SP5 G Vannerson SPC Paul Clover SFC Stephen Lucas MSgt Dale Johnson Capt Don Porter CWO3 Randy Weston Alan Korb
New method accurately detects prions in blood
A sensitive blood test accurately detected variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable and fatal neurodegener
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence
New method accurately detects prions in blood
A sensitive blood test accurately detected variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. The method could be used to diagnose prion diseases and prevent disease transmission.
I just checked with the Red Cross restrictions. "Diabetics who are well controlled on insulin or oral medications are eligible to donate."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon
Below is the background:
Thanks to SFC William Squires for alerting me that "there is progress in the development of methods to detect misfolded proteins in the bloodstream" I did research and found the following at an NIH site.
As this article informs us there has been progress in control groups testing of "developed blood tests to detect prion." The article states that there are plans to "validate their methods using larger samples sizes."
Hopefully this process will be successful to detect whether or not we have been infected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Variant (vCJD); "Mad Cow Disease."
"Prion diseases are a group of rare, fatal brain diseases that affect animals and humans. They are caused by normally harmless proteins that become abnormal and form clumps in the brain. One form, called variant CJD (vCJD), is associated with eating meat from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow” disease.
People may have vCJD for years before symptoms—such as depression, hallucinations, moving difficulties, and dementia—appear. These “silent” carriers have small amounts of prions in their bloodstreams and can transmit the disease to others via blood transfusions. The only current method to diagnose vCJD is to perform a biopsy or a postmortem analysis of brain tissue. Thus, a noninvasive test to detect prions in blood is a medical priority.
Two research groups recently developed blood tests to detect prions. The results appeared in a pair of papers published on December 21, 2016, in Science Translational Medicine. One of the groups, led by Dr. Claudio Soto of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS).
Prions are scarce in the bloodstream and difficult to measure. Both teams developed methods to amplify the prions in blood samples using a technique called protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). PMCA relies on the characteristic nature of prions to cause certain healthy proteins to clump abnormally and convert into prions.
Soto’s group first combined healthy proteins with known concentrations of infectious vCJD prions. They intermittently agitated these mixtures with sound waves. The agitation helped break the prions into smaller chunks. This increased the number of prions that could then convert healthy proteins into prions. Using this method, the scientists were able to detect more than a billion-fold dilution of prions using an anti-prion antibody.
The scientists next tested whether the technique could be used to detect prions in blood samples from 14 people with vCJD and 153 controls. The controls included healthy people as well as people with different neurological or neurodegenerative disorders, including sporadic CJD, the most common form of CJD. The assay flagged all the vCJD samples correctly.
In the second paper, a French research group described a similar approach testing a blinded panel of blood samples. That team identified 18 vCJD patients in a group of 256 samples.
“Our findings, which need to be confirmed in further studies, suggest that our method of detection could be useful for the noninvasive diagnosis of this disease in pre-symptomatic individuals,” Soto says. Early diagnosis would allow potential therapies to be tested before substantial brain damage occurred. This technique would also allow blood contaminated with prions to be detected and removed from the blood supply.
Both teams are now working to validate their methods using larger samples sizes.
―by Anita Ramanathan
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/new-method-accurately-detects-prions-blood
FYI Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SSgt Brian Brakke Sgt Arthur Caesar SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
New method accurately detects prions in blood
A sensitive blood test accurately detected variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. The method could be used to diagnose prion diseases and prevent disease transmission.
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence