Blood supplies at ‘serious risk’ from new viruses

Date: 26/06/03

By Martin Banks

EMERGING viruses such as SARS pose an "enormous" potential threat to the safety of blood supplies in the EU, a hearing at the European Parliament was told.

The SARS epidemic, which has infected more than 8,000 people around the world, highlights the need for the European blood directive to be updated, MEPs said. Since 1976, at least 19 new infectious diseases have emerged, including SARS and CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, with international travel and increased mobility all contributing to them spreading.

Prof Herbert Schmitz, head of the Virology Department at the Bernhard-Nocht Institut for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, said that, although blood supplies today are safer than ever before, new and emerging viruses such as SARS represent a serious risk.

"While not all emerging pathogens are deadly, most patients receiving blood transfusions are in a weaker and more susceptible condition than the average healthy person," he said.

Stefan Schreck, an "A-grade" official for the commission's general health and consumer protection unit, told the hearing the EU executive was pushing through new policies aimed at protecting blood supplies and patients needing blood transfusions.

But Belgian Liberal deputy Frédérique Ries said that, despite such assurances, the EU needed to "revisit" existing legislation intended to ensure a uniformly high level of safety of all blood components for member states.

She said: "Our goal is to develop a proactive prevention plan [implemented across Europe] that will allow us to be prepared for the next emerging virus outbreak and not wait until it is too late."

The hearing, at the European Parliament, was attended by public health officials, patient advocacy groups and experts in the field of transfusion medicine.

• Latest Commission figures show there have been 103 SARS cases in the EU. Of these, 37 are classed as "probable" and 66 suspected. There have been no deaths. Worldwide, 800 people have died from the acute respiratory disease.

Blood supplies in the EU are at risk from viruses such as SARS according to Professor Herbert Schmitz, head of the Virology Department at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg.