|
CampaignTB uploaded a new video
(2 weeks ago)
Westminster Hall - Wednesday 8th February 2012 - 4.05pm
Chaired by Hull North MP Diana Johnson (Labour) / APPG for Haemophilia
Duration : 30mins 18secs
more
Westminster Hall - Wednesday 8th February 2012 - 4.05pm
Chaired by Hull North MP Diana Johnson (Labour) / APPG for Haemophilia
Duration : 30mins 18secs
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CampaignTB uploaded a new video
(1 month ago)
Friday 13th January 2012 - Victoria Macdonald - Heath & Social Care Correspondent
Christine Lord's website is www.justice4andy.com
A blood test f...
more
Friday 13th January 2012 - Victoria Macdonald - Heath & Social Care Correspondent
Christine Lord's website is www.justice4andy.com
A blood test for variant CJD is for the first time being offered to patients from around the UK and some from abroad who are suspected of having what was once known as mad cow disease.
A notification has been sent to neurologists around the country from the NHS National Prion Clinic and the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit saying that the blood test is now available. Between five and 10 samples a week are now being sent in from here and other countries where there have been cases of vCJD.
Professor John Collinge, who has been part of the team developing the blood test, said that so far the test had not produced any false positive results - that is, where a test shows there is infection when there is not.
This is a significant step forward in the fight against the disease. Until now the only way of confirming the diagnosis has been through tonsil biopsies during life or after the patient has died and brain samples can be taken.
Funding from the Medical Research Council has meant the team has now been able to begin a crucial new phase in assessing the blood test. This involves testing 5,000 anonymous samples from the US, supplied from the American Red Cross. America has low levels of exposure to BSE and the tests will enable the scientists to assess the false positive rate.
Prof Collinge said if they find there are a significant number of false positives then "it will be back to the drawing board."
If, on the other hand, the test works, then the next step will be to screen 50,000 anonymous UK blood donors which would allow the first accurate assessment of how many people in this country are carrying the disease.
Recent studies from tonsil samples show that possibly one in 4,000 people in the UK or 15,000 in total may be infected with the disease, although some tests have put the numbers slightly higher.
The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency show that there have so far been 176 definite or probable cases of vCJD from when it was first detected in humans in 1995 until the end of 2011.
Variant CJD is a human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) which first emerged in Britain in 1986 as a result of beef offal being fed to cattle. The prions which are responsible for BSE and vCJD were found in the brains, spinal cords and spleens of cows. When the meat was mechanically recovered, and turned into the likes of hamburgers and baby food, the prions entered the human chain.
Variant CJD is a cruel disease which causes a form of dementia, affecting both the brain and nervous system. It has a long incubation period and mainly affects young people. The majority of deaths have been in those in their 20s, although there have been exceptions.
The development of a possible blood test was announced last February in a scientific paper published in The Lancet. Permission has now been given by UCLH, the hospital trust to which Prof Collinge and his team are attached, to start a clinical evaluation in patients in whom a diagnosis of vCJD is suspected.
Currently blood undergoes leukodepletion which involves the removal of the white blood cells. But this does not remove all the prions and there have been several cases of people infected with vCJD after receiving blood products. There have also been cases of people being infected through the use of surgical instruments.
It is understood that a 50-year-old woman died from vCJD within the past few weeks after she received a blood transfusion in 2002 - four years after leukodepletion was introduced.
"In principle, it may allow us to find how many people in the population are infected so we can target risk management strategies and ensure the safety of our blood supply," he said.
"It could also enable us to make an earlier diagnosis and as treatments become available it is going to be desperately important to get to patients early before there is extensive damage to the brain."
Christine Lord, whose son Andy died in 2007 from vCJD, told Channel 4 News that the sad thing was that many people thought this disease had gone away.
"The importance of a blood test means we would protect people and prevent future deaths," Ms Lord said.
"Since my son's death I have visited many more young men and women who are dying with vCJD. It continues to kill on a regular basis. My concern as a Mum who has lost her only son is that no other Mum, Dad or family will go through this. The pain is absolutely unbelievable."
Frank Dobson, who was the Health Secretary who introduced leukodepletion, urged the government to provide any necessary future funding.
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CampaignTB uploaded a new video
(1 month ago)
Three young Haemophiliac brothers with the AIDS virus are shunned by their town, school and even their church in Arcadia in the USA. The brothers c...
more
Three young Haemophiliac brothers with the AIDS virus are shunned by their town, school and even their church in Arcadia in the USA. The brothers contracted the virus after receiving contaminated blood products.
1st July 1987 - Ray brothers playing; Intvw Ricky Ray; Children off school bus; Ext Baptist Church; Intvw Raul Gamiotea (Baptist Minister); Ray brothers fishing; Intvw Clyde Poole (Local resident); Barber's shop; Intvw Cliff Ray (Boys' Father)
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CampaignTB uploaded a new video
(1 month ago)
SYDNEY & BRISBANE AUSTRALIA - ABC Queensland News - Monday 30th July 1984
Health authorities in Australia believe more than forty people may hav...
more
SYDNEY & BRISBANE AUSTRALIA - ABC Queensland News - Monday 30th July 1984
Health authorities in Australia believe more than forty people may have been given blood transfusions contaminated with the virus responsible for AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Already, one New South Wales patient who received a transfusion of the contaminated blood has contracted the incurable virus and is now seriously ill. New South Wales hospitals are busy checking all other blood recipients to see if the transfusions used were from the original contaminated sample. Up to thirty Queenslanders and twelve Tasmanians are also at risk following transfusions of blood contaminated by the same donor. An unknown number of other people who may have had sexual contact with the recipients of the contaminated blood may also be at risk. Symptoms of AIDS can take between one and three years to appear. The blood comes from a Sydney homosexual who gave his donation at the city's central blood bank without knowing he was a carrier of AIDS. He has not shown any symptoms of the disease. The blood was sent with other samples and processed by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in Melbourne. Health authorities are very concerned that the AIDS virus have contaminated one particular product derived from the infected blood, called Factor 8, which is used to treat Haemophiliacs. Mrs Liz Hancock has two children, Paul and Mathew, who both suffer from Haemophilia, and she's worried they may have contracted the disease. She says she is very angry that her children may have to face another major hurdle in their lives because of someone else's mistake. But a health spokesman, Dr. David Storey, says the risk of transmitting AIDS by Factor 8 is "very small". According to Dr. Storey, the incidence of AIDS amongst Haemophiliacs in the United States of America is still very low. AIDS is a particularly debilitating and virulent disease. In America, only one in five people diagnosed four years ago are still alive.
less
|
|
| |
|
|
CampaignTB uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
BBC News - Friday 23rd November 1984
British and United States scientists have developed a new method of manufacturing the agent that causes blood t...
more
BBC News - Friday 23rd November 1984
British and United States scientists have developed a new method of manufacturing the agent that causes blood to clot, of great potential benefit to haemophiliacs as it would protect them from transfusion-carried diseases - including the killer virus, AIDS. Researchers at London's Royal Free Hospital, the Genentech Company in San Francisco, and the Genetics Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, have managed to clone the human blood clotting agent, Factor 8. Many haemophiliacs need regular injections of Factor 8 because of their hereditary disease that prevents blood clotting. At present, Factor 8 is extracted from the blood of thousands of donors, presenting a health risk to the eventual recipients by means of possible infection - often by serious illnesses such as AIDS. The killer disease was discovered in 1981. In the United States nearly half of the 6,000 reported victims have died, over 80 of them after receiving infected blood transfusions. The new blood agent, which by-passes the risk of infection, is likely to be commercially available within five years.
less
|
|
Three years ago today, on 23rd February 2009, Lord Archer of Sandwell published his report following the Independent Public Inquiry into contaminated blood and blood products, which he chaired. This month marks not only this three year anniversary of his report, which the Government has not fully addressed, but also the five year anniversary of the announcement of that inquiry.
To press the case further for full implementation of the Archer recommendations, TaintedBlood and the Manor House Group announced today that they would be working closer together to press their common cause.
Dave Tonkin, Chair of Manor House Group added :
"MHG is pleased to add weight to the campaign, by working together with TaintedBlood. We hope that we can offer each other support and achieve an agreed solution to this huge wrong that has been done to our community by the NHS - God willing, it never happens again."
Results from a recent study indicate that brain disorders, particularly epilepsy and seizures, are more common in HIV-positive patients with hepatitis C virus than in patients with HIV alone. The risk of death was also higher for these individuals...
Results showed that the rate of multiple brain disorders was higher in HIV patients with hepatitis C, affecting 60 percent of co-infected participants versus 47 percent of participants with just HIV..
Click link below for whole article:
http://www.aidsbeacon.com/news
Sue Threakall, secretary of Taintedblood stated:
'Whilst there are some minor positive points, we are devastated by this announcement. There are a limited number of people that the new financial support will be available to and the level of payment to those who will qualify is hugely disappointing. It will not bring to an end the years of suffering and will mean that the campaign for achieving proper compensation for all will continue with a new vigour.'
We have reached an historic landmark in the Contaminated Blood Campaign. It has been announced on the Parliament website that a debate is to take place in the House of Commons main chamber on the subject of 'Compensation for NHS blood Contamination'
Thanks must go to all those who have worked so tirelessly in getting us this far, but although this is a major step forward we should stress that there is still much work to do. It is vital that as many MPs as possible are in the House on the day representing their constituents and pressing for the implementation of Lord Archer's recommendations. In order for them to do this well they need to be fully briefed.
Please see the blog at www.taintedblood.info for further details on how you can do this.
It was only a couple of weeks or so that I spoke with Haydn, and even though he knew that I had missed 'Aids', he was fully supported of me by the fact that like him I am a 'Mild' haemophiliac but have been exposed to multiple Hepatitis Viruses, ie...Hep A. Hep B. Hep C. etc...
I will always think of him as an honest person.
Peter Mossman. MHG Vicechairperson.